SPOTLIGHT: Deconstructing Defence’s Digital Engineering Strategy, with Downer’s Rachel Hatton and Connie Heaney

Joint-capabilities
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By: Robyn Tongol

In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast, Downer Professional Services’ Rachel Hatton, General Manager - Mission Engineering, and Connie Heaney, General Manager - Advisory & Technical Services, join Liam Garman to discuss what Defence’s Digital Engineering Strategy means for Australia, offer insights on digital and mission engineering approaches, and provide real world examples.

In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast, Downer Professional Services’ Rachel Hatton, General Manager - Mission Engineering, and Connie Heaney, General Manager - Advisory & Technical Services, join Liam Garman to discuss what Defence’s Digital Engineering Strategy means for Australia, offer insights on digital and mission engineering approaches, and provide real world examples.

  • The podcast begins by illuminating how the DE Strategy relates to the National Defence Strategy, and how it directly addresses the challenges that traditional capability life cycle processes have keeping up with technological advancements.
  • Hatton and Heaney then unpack the strategy’s five strategic goals and talk about its potential to revolutionise the Australian workforce and innovation within the capability development system.
  • They wrap up the podcast discussing what this means for industry, from transitioning to a digital environment, more pilot projects to test DE tools, and greater collaboration across Defence, industry and academia.

Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team

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Listen to previous episodes of the Defence Connect podcast:

Episode 11: CONTESTED GROUND: Weak, vulnerable, backwater – Australia’s choice between strategic camps and managed decline
Episode 10: PODCAST: Undersea dominance – Australia charts the maritime future through autonomous systems and AUKUS innovation
Episode 9: PODCAST: Australian Army Cadets pathways, submarine industry growth and Australia’s fuel security
Episode 8: CONTESTED GROUND: The blind faith factor – why Australians trust an ADF they don’t understand
Episode 7: PODCAST: Defence preparedness, artificial intelligence productivity, and Australian industrial resilience
Episode 6: CONTESTED GROUND: Shots fired! Chinese missile test shatters Australia’s ‘fog of peace’, with Mike Pezzullo
Episode 5: SPOTLIGHT: Counter-drone innovation, directed energy and delivering operational outcomes, with EOS Defence Systems’ Lee Kormany
Episode 4: PODCAST: Strengthening security ties, Fiji defence pact and Australia’s counter-drone push
Episode 3: CONTESTED GROUND: Lessons from the UK in political polarisation, generational dislocation and intergenerational warfare, with Ben Dullroy, Bravo Delta Advisory
Episode 2: PODCAST: Defence Industry Development Strategy, Defence reform and Australians fighting in Ukraine