Australia is accelerating its effort to build new littoral medium landing ships for its armed forces. The first of 18 vessels is expected to be delivered in 2026. The $2 billion project is part of Canberra’s effort to build a national naval shipbuilding and sustainment industry. The construction of the Australian Defence Force’s new littoral...
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Category: Australia
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Australia Expands List of Primes for Global Supply Chain Initiative
Australia has tapped several companies to join the Global Supply Chain program, expanding its membership to 13 participants in line with the Defence Industry Development Strategy. The participating companies, known as primes, are: Babcock BAE Systems Boeing HII Kongsberg L3Harris Lockheed Martin Moog Northrop Grumman Raytheon Rheinmetall Saab, and Thales. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy...
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Silentium Ships First Batch of Sensors for Australia’s Air Battle Management System; Warren McDonald Quoted
Silentium Defence, a spinoff from Defence Australia, has delivered the first batch of passive radar systems for AIR6500, Australia’s Joint Air Battle Management System. Lockheed Martin Australia, which will build AIR6500, confirmed receiving the Maverick Fortress 3D sensors. Warren McDonald, the company’s chief executive in Australia and New Zealand, said the Adelaide-based deep-technology startup made...
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Lockheed Martin Australia Realigns R&D Lab’s Focus to Advanced Systems and Technologies
Lockheed Martin’s research operations center in Australia is now known as Advanced Systems and Technologies. The company said the transition from the old name — STELaRLab, short for Science, Technology, Engineering Leadership and Research Laboratory — will enable the facility to better meet the Australian Defence Force’s mission objective and capability development requirements. AST advances research and...
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Canberra Orders 15 Additional Bushmaster PMVs From Thales Australia; Pat Conroy Quoted
Canberra has ordered an additional 15 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles worth $30 million from Thales Australia, specifically fitted for the command and control capabilities of the Australian Army’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. According to the government, it has already invested over $135 million in 93 Bushmasters manufactured at Thales’ facility in Bendigo, contributing to...
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Australia Selects Quantum-Systems, Sypaq to Provide New Drones to ADF
The Australian Defence Force will see its drone assets expand with the Albanese government’s procurement of new lethal and nonlethal small uncrewed aerial systems worth over $67.79 million from Quantum-Systems and Sypaq Systems. Quantum-Systems was awarded two contracts to deliver Vector fixed-wing electric vertical takeoff and landing drones and provide training, maintenance, engineering, supply and...
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Lockheed Awarded $300M Navy Contract Modification to Support Australia Surface Combatant Program
Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Lockheed Martin’s rotary and mission systems business a contract modification worth $300.94 million to provide software engineering and on-site support for the Australia Surface Combatant program. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey, and Adelaide, Australia, through September 2031. The ASC initiative involves the modernization of three Hobart-class...
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Australian Defence Force to Acquire Switchblade Loitering Munition; Pat Conroy Quoted
Australia expects to receive an order of Switchblade 300 precision loitering munitions in 2024 and deploy the weapon into service in 2025 to boost the Australian Defence Force’s drone warfighting capabilities. The acquisition of the munitions, manufactured by U.S. company AeroVironment, adds to the different drone types in the ADF arsenal that can be armed...
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AWS to Deliver Secure Cloud Platform for Australian Defense Community; Dave Levy Quoted
Amazon Web Services is extending its expertise to the Australian government as it rolls out a more secure communications network for the nation’s defense community. On Thursday, Canberra announced that the Australian Signals Directorate has signed a strategic partnership with AWS to deliver a Top Secret Cloud platform. Under the pact, AWS will provide a...
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Former US Secnav Richard Spencer to Replace John Rothwell as Austal Chairman
Richard Spencer, former U.S. secretary of the Navy, has been selected to replace John Rothwell as chairman of Perth, Australia-based Austal. Rothwell will step down on Monday after nearly four decades in the role. As Austal’s new chair, Spencer said he will build on Rothwell’s yearslong work, which enabled the company to achieve its current...