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Protecting coastlines and borders can present a security challenge for any nation, but in Australia those challenges are unique. With its vast continent, extensive coastal areas and a harsh natural landscape prone to disasters including bushfires, floods and storms, Australia’s security threats are complex and evolving.
At the same time, the Australian government is making significant investments to upgrade its naval fleet to reinforce its defences, address illegal maritime activities and overcome disruptions to sea lanes of communications.
To operate in such challenging environments and succeed in their missions, naval and defence organisations need to invest in innovation.
Maintaining secure voice and data communications
One of the most important challenges facing naval defence organisations is maintaining reliable and secure communications.
Whether communicating with other naval fleets, public security forces or emergency services as part of large scale events or conflicts, any interference or interception of communications can potentially compromise the safety and effectiveness of missions.
Naval forces and other responding organisations need access to integrated and interoperable communication that enable them to collaborate with different teams and individuals without compromising security.
At the same time, responders need to remain connected to reliable, team-based communication at all times and wherever they are deployed, regardless of whether sailors or soldiers use radios, smartphones or smart radios which combine both voice and data technologies.
Data services that complement the use of voice communication are also vital to successful missions. With essential data such as mapping and location services, personnel can work safely while securely sharing their precise location with colleagues working in command centres.
When multiple data streams and workflows from the field are presented within a command centre, they help to enrich overall incident awareness and inform better strategic decisions about where field based personnel can be mobilised and deployed to greater effect.
The Right Time for Investment
Naval defence is not only a vital strategic priority, it’s big business for Australian companies and the wider economy.
The Australian government’s recent announcement of a AU$12 billion (US$7.96 billion), multi-year investment to support the consolidation of the Henderson naval shipyard facility is a critical next step in delivering a continuous naval shipbuilding capability as set out in the 2024 Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Plan.
The world class precinct is expected to create more than 10,000 local jobs in Western Australia with strong economic opportunities for local industries.
As a global leader in the development of innovative safety and security technologies, Motorola Solutions is investing for the future of defence industries too.
Our sovereign radio communications manufacturing facility is located near Henderson, helping to create an integral supply chain link to support key defence precinct industry partners and provide vital resources needed to support the naval sector.
In August, Motorola Solutions announced it had completed acquisition of Silvus Technologies Holdings, a provider of advanced solutions for drone and uncrewed systems trusted in the world's most demanding defense environments.
Silvus is a global leader in mission-critical mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) designed to support frontline operations in the most challenging and contested environments, enabling highly secure data, video and voice communications without the need for fixed infrastructure.
Silvus devices mesh together to establish large, scalable and self-healing networks that adapt to continuous mobility, characteristics ideally suited to naval and littoral operations, including the command and control of unmanned vessels and submersibles. These robust mobile networks connect people, devices and other nodes over distance and at scale, and seamlessly support bandwidth-intensive technologies like video, sensors and drones.
This capability is critical to addressing increasing safety, security and defence use cases for autonomous systems and secure high bandwidth communications, and to meeting the Australian Navy’s requirements for self-healing, adaptive and secure communications that can operate under persistent threats.
Through its acquisition of Silvus, Motorola Solutions has also welcomed CRFS Limited and CRFS, Inc. to the company. CFRS is a global leader in radio frequency (RF) intelligence technology and provides innovative solutions to empower defence agencies and intelligence communities to detect and geolocate RF signals in congested and contested environments; technology that strongly complements Motorola Solutions’ global leadership in mission-critical communications.
Proven, Global Experience in Supporting Defence and Naval Projects
Motorola Solutions has provided technology to support a number of specialised military and naval projects both in Australia and abroad.
This includes:
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Providing land mobile radio (LMR) systems, tactical LTE and devices used by defence organisations globally
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Fitting out nearly 100 LCS and DDG class vessels with our Ship Wide Interior Wirefree Communications System (SIWCS).
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Deploying a new digital radio communications system to support command and control operations on board the German Navy’s vessel, frigate F124 Sachsen.
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Providing high power HF radio systems for the Australian Navy Bay-class landing ship dock, HMAS Choules.
With naval defence and border protection remaining a complex and increasingly challenging task, Motorola Solutions looks forward to working with the Australian naval and maritime sectors to help make our nation safer and more secure.
