Updated 22 June 2025

Avalon Airshow 2025

King Arthur’s Writes attended this year’s edition of the Avalon Airshow, held between Geelong and Melbourne in Australia, from 25-30 March 2025. Compared to the incessant hassles visiting Aero India 2025 in Bengaluru the preceding month, it was a relief to be at an event that was well organised.

This year’s Avalon Airshow event did not see any significant procurement announcements or revelations, since many RAAF programmes are already under way or decided. Of course, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that frigates and nuclear-powered submarines are sucking up so much of Australia’s defence budget, so much so that there is precious little money left for anything else. Glaring capability gaps exist in the areas of Australian air defence and counter-drone systems, but the alarming thing was that RAAF officials seem unconcerned by this, at least publicly. As Ukraine’s later, ingenious UAV attack against Russian air bases – dubbed Spider’s Web and launched in early June – demonstrated, modern fighters and aircraft parked in the open or under thin corrugated roofs are incredibly vulnerable to drone attack.

Avalon Airshow 2025 is a good opportunity to see almost the full range of RAAF aircraft in action, although this year the participation of military aircraft from friendly nations was considerably reduced compared to the 2023 edition. Unfortunately, the event was also marred by the crash of a civilian aerobatic aircraft on the first public day. The Paul Bennet Airshows pilot survived the accident, but he suffered spinal injuries.