CANBERRA, Australia — Australia will send advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles to the United Arab Emirates and deploy a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to the Gulf for an initial four weeks as Iran’s attacks on Gulf states intensify, March 10, 2026. The Albanese government said the mission is designed to help secure Gulf airspace and protect Australians in the region while stopping short of any ground role in Iran.
Canberra says the deployment is limited and defensive, but the decision deepens Australia’s role in protecting Gulf airspace as Iranian attacks widen and regional disruption grows.
In Reuters’ report on Tuesday’s announcement, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia’s involvement was “purely defensive” and stressed that Canberra was acting to defend both Australians and partners in the Gulf as the conflict pushed the Strait of Hormuz deeper into crisis.
An official statement from Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles said the Wedgetail would provide long-range reconnaissance to help secure Gulf airspace and confirmed Australia intends to provide the UAE with advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles. The government also said roughly 115,000 Australians are in the Middle East, including about 24,000 in the UAE, and that more than 2,600 have already returned home.
Why Australia sends missiles to UAE now
The immediate backdrop is the scale of the attack wave now spilling across the Gulf. A Reuters roundup of Gulf defence ministry figures said the UAE had detected 196 ballistic missiles, 1,072 drones and eight cruise missiles since the latest phase of the conflict began, with most intercepted but some debris and impacts still landing on UAE territory.
Australia is also moving quickly. ABC News reported that 85 Australian Defence Force personnel are being sent to the UAE and are expected to be operational by the end of the week for an initial four-week deployment in support of the “collective self-defence of Gulf nations.”
That framing matters. Canberra has gone out of its way to say the package is defensive, not offensive, and that no Australian troops will be sent into Iran. The distinction allows the government to argue it is bolstering air defence and surveillance rather than joining a direct combat campaign inside Iranian territory.
How Canberra got here
The shift has been building for days. On March 8, Reuters reported that Australia was weighing requests for assistance from countries attacked by Iran even as ministers said Canberra would avoid taking part in offensive military operations.
That followed an even firmer line earlier in the crisis. In a March 2 Reuters report, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would not take part in military operations in Iran, effectively setting the boundary that Tuesday’s announcement still tries to respect.
A longer precedent for the Wedgetail
The aircraft choice also fits an existing Australian playbook. In July 2023, Reuters reported that Canberra deployed the E-7A Wedgetail to Germany to help protect a logistics gateway supporting Ukraine, using the aircraft’s long-range surveillance and coordination capabilities in a support role outside a direct war zone.
That earlier Ukraine mission gives Tuesday’s move a recent precedent: use the Wedgetail for surveillance, airspace awareness and coordination outside the main battlefield rather than for offensive strikes. For now, the government is presenting the new mission as bounded in time and scope. Even so, the decision places Australia more visibly inside the Gulf security response as Iranian strikes continue and the wider conflict ripples through civilians, travel and energy markets.
