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Sydney-based technology company Advanced Navigation is expanding its global footprint with new centres of excellence for assured positioning, navigation and timing in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, underscoring Australia’s growing role as a supplier of next-generation defence and autonomy technologies.
The move follows the recent launch of the company’s Boreas 50 series, a compact fibre-optic gyroscope inertial navigation system designed for contested environments where global positioning system signals are denied, jammed or spoofed. The technology has been developed to meet the operational needs of modern battlefields, where electronic warfare is rapidly intensifying.
The UK facility – the first of several international centres – will scale up production, engineering and servicing of Advanced Navigation’s world-leading inertial navigation systems while also building sovereign capability among allied partners.
“This major expansion is a direct response to the growing demand for GNSS-denied navigation technology, driven by escalating electronic warfare threats and the critical need for resilient autonomy on the battlefield,” said Grace Hynd, chief operating officer of Advanced Navigation.
Selection of the UK site is underway, with the final location to be announced later this year. Additional centres across Europe and the US will follow in 2026. Advanced Navigation has doubled its workforce in the past year and boosted its Australian manufacturing capacity to meet surging international demand.
The company’s expansion marks a significant milestone for Australia’s defence industry, positioning the nation as a key provider of critical navigation technologies to NATO partners and beyond.
Hynd added, “The UK PNT Centre of Excellence is the blueprint for our international expansion. Each centre will allow us to collaborate directly with defence and technology leaders while strengthening sovereign industrial capacity within allied nations.”
The centres will also focus on interoperability across NATO land, sea and air platforms, reducing integration costs and accelerating deployment. By embedding itself in allied industrial bases, Advanced Navigation is directly contributing to strengthening the resilience of critical defence infrastructure.
Advanced Navigation’s strategy is built on integrating multiple sensor technologies from fibre-optic and MEMS gyroscopes to LiDAR, radar, acoustic Doppler and vision-based systems, ensuring navigation resilience even in the most hostile electromagnetic environments.
Headquartered in Sydney with offices worldwide, Advanced Navigation has grown from a deep technology start-up into a global leader in robotics, inertial and photonic sensing, artificial intelligence, underwater acoustics and quantum technologies. Its products are already used across land, air, sea and space applications by governments, defence forces and industry.
“The future of navigation lies not in one technology but in the integration of many,” Hynd said. “This expansion is about ensuring our allies can navigate with certainty, even when adversaries contest the skies, seas and spectrum.”
