SPOTLIGHT: Building a hypersonics industry, with Duncan Watt and Mat Jones

Joint-capabilities
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By: Robyn Tongol
SPOTLIGHT: Building a hypersonics industry, with Duncan Watt and Mat Jones

In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast, Duncan Watt, general manager of guided weapons and hypersonics at Thales, and Mat Jones, head of future business at BAE Systems Australia, join host Phil Tarrant to discuss how the companies have teamed up to build a sovereign hypersonics and guided weapons capability.

In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast, Duncan Watt, general manager of guided weapons and hypersonics at Thales, and Mat Jones, head of future business at BAE Systems Australia, join host Phil Tarrant to discuss how the companies have teamed up to build a sovereign hypersonics and guided weapons capability.


  • The podcast begins with a discussion of the Thales and BAE Systems Australia partnership, where homegrown intellectual property is being utilised to build a unique missile solution.
  • They continue discussing how Australia is well positioned to develop hypersonic deterrent, having maintained significant research from Nulka and the Evolved SeaSparro.
  • Watt and Jones also discuss the broader concept of hypersonic deterrence, explaining that the industry is not simply aiming to develop one single prototype but an entire industrial ecosystem to produce capabilities at scale. 

Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect Team

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Listen to previous episodes of the Defence Connect podcast:

Episode 11: THE PROGRESS REPORT: Direct hit over Baghdad – the pilot who outflew a surface-to-air missile
Episode 10: SPOTLIGHT: Subs may be the centrepiece – but infrastructure, workforce and sovereign capability will decide the outcome, with Stantec Australia’s Chris Waywell, Rob Sansbury and Robert Fogel
Episode 9: CONTESTED GROUND: Apathy, complacency and the ‘Lucky Country’, Australia’s predicament is entirely self-inflicted, with Ben Dullroy
Episode 8: SPECIAL EDITION PODCAST: 125 years of the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army
Episode 7: CONTESTED GROUND: Australian resilience during a crisis and sovereign industrial capability
Episode 6: CONTESTED GROUND: From Tehran to Sydney – why war could reshape Australian property
Episode 5: SPOTLIGHT: Inside Australia’s AUKUS industrial transformation, with Honeywell Aerospace Australia senior director Lee Davis
Episode 4: CONTESTED GROUND: War without borders – the disinformation threat arriving in Australia
Episode 3: THE PROGRESS REPORT: The mission to make military children visible
Episode 2: PODCAST: Righting the ship, balancing the force, with Senator James Paterson, shadow minister for defence