Weaponised drone research facility opening in Brisbane

A $100 million facility developing smart and weaponised robotic drones will officially open in Brisbane next month.

The never-before-seen weapons fly and fire by themselves.

The Defence Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Trusted Autonomous Systems was established under the federal government’s Next Generation Technologies Fund.

The emerging drone industry is tipped to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Queensland’s economy in the next 5-10 years.

“This is a game changing moment for Queensland,” chief engineer Jason Scholz said.

9News has confirmed during State of Origin Game one, an unregistered drone illegally flew over the packed stadium.

Its lights were turned off. Authorities haven't identified its operator.

The developers say the technology could have stopped 140,000 passengers from being grounded at Gatwick Airport in the UK after 1000 plane flights were cancelled right before Christmas when an unidentified rogue drone flew over the airspace.

“We want Queensland to be the drone capital of Australia,” innovation minister Kate Jones said.

“The fact that we're going to have this world leading research centre based in Queensland will mean that those drone jobs will stay in Queensland.”