Wanting Australian drones but buying foreign instead – by Dr Peter Layton

Australia has clear defence industry priorities including developing a local drone manufacturing sector. Here Dr Peter Layton examines Defence’s recent drone purchases, and asks why then, do we buy overseas made drones and not the best value or most advanced ones at that? In late February the Minister for Defence Industry launched the Defence Industry…

Eight grants to develop priority defence capabilities

Eight small to medium-sized businesses delivering priority capabilities for Defence will be assisted by federal government grants totalling $3.47 million. The Defence Global Competitiveness and Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority grant programmes help Australian businesses boost manufacturing, harness their expertise and increase jobs. The latest recipients are: QPE Advanced Manufacturing (pictured) will receive $1 million to…

Sentient Vision to fall to foreign control in Shield AI takeover

Optical detection and video imagery company Sentient Vision Systems is to fall into overseas control with a takeover by California-based Shield AI. Sentient previously collaborated with Shield to develop a ViDAR-enabled wide area motion imagery (WAMI) solution called ‘Sentient Observer’, which will fly this year. ViDAR is Sentient’s AI system, which uses an Electro-Optic or…