The federal government has released a 2024 Defence Digital Strategy and Roadmap, which sets out Defence’s approach to delivering information and communications technologies (ICT) . The Defence Strategic Review said that ICT is critical to Defence and modern warfighting capability, and underpins Australia’s preparedness to meet strategic circumstances. The eight page Strategy and Roadmap outlines…
Australia has formally joined the US-led Landsat Next satellite programme in a humiliating endpoint to out abandonment of an indigenous Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) R&D development. Developing our own EOS was a victim of cuts meted out to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources in the first Chalmers budget, cuts which shocked the science…
By Peter Roberts This week, did we see an example of the federal government’s new policies to link innovation more directly and speedily to eventual purchase? Or was this the last gasp of Defence’s traditional glacial approach to procurement. These questions loom large in Monday’s announcement that the government would invest over $100 million to…
The federal government has signed a $500 million contract with Lockheed Martin Australia to deliver the next phase of the Joint Air Battle Management System that synchronises air and missile defence operations across air, sea and land operations. LMA was named in October as the strategic partner to deliver the project, known as AIR6500, which…
Defence Minister Richard Marles has outlined an ambitious Integrated Investment Program which incudes a jump in defence spending to the equivalent of 2.4 percent of GDP by 2033-34, a rise of a massive 0.3 percent on earlier projections. The programme, a response to the 2024 National Defence Strategy, involves a complete rebuild of Defence’s capability…
The federal government has today released a plan that defines the strategic rationale for a sovereign defence industrial base and aims to maximise support for Australian industry, including SMEs and its critical contribution to national security. The Defence Industry Development Strategy (DIDS) outlines: Focus areas for the defence industrial base Procurement reforms including simplifying contracting…
The Assistant Minister for defence Matt Thistlethwaite has spruiked the government’s response to the Defence Strategic Review in the field of defence innovation, including through joint work with AUKUS partners the US and the UK. The DSR found that more support is needed for innovation, faster acquisition and better links between Defence and industry to…
By Peter Roberts It is amazing what a little cold hard cash – an extra $11 billion bringing the total to $38 billion over 10 years to be exact – can do. The federal government has tried to work wonders by piling the cash into the defence budget to achieve three of what seemed like…
The federal government has pushed forward with plans to develop and field the MQ-28A Ghost Bat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which is seen as a companion for manned Royal Australian Air Force planes. The government said it has secured hundreds of highly skilled jobs while driving industry innovation with the allocation of an additional $399…
By Peter Roberts Until now the talk in defence circles has been about the possibility that fewer than the planned nine Hunter class frigates might be built at a new shipyard at Osborne in Adelaide (pictured). This is something that has kept Adelaide manufacturers, already reeling from Australia’s recent on-again, off again submarine policies, awake…
