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Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne announced $3.07 million of investment in Australian businesses as part of the latest round of Defence Innovation Hub contracts.
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The Defence Innovation Hub enables Defence, industry and research organisations to collaborate on innovative technologies and ideas that can deliver leading-edge capabilities for Defence.
Minister Pyne said, “The government is committed to advancing defence capability through a $1.6 billion investment in defence industry and innovation over the decade to 2025-26, including around $640 million to support the development of innovative technologies through the Defence Innovation Hub."
The Defence Innovation Hub is an initiative of the 2016 Defence Industry Policy Statement and aims to mature and further develop technologies that have moved from the early science stages into the engineering and development stages of the innovation process. It is an initiative that will pull together research institutions, academia, industry and innovative technologies.
“The hub is committed to working with Australian industry to foster innovation at various levels of technological maturity, transitioning from concept exploration through to a mature, useable capability for the Australian Defence Force,” Minister Pyne said.
The latest tranche of investment includes a $1.23 million contract with Saber Astronautics to further explore its innovation following a successful phase one contract with the Defence Innovation Hub. This is the first Defence Innovation Hub project to progress to the next phase of development since the launch of the Hub in December 2016.
The Defence Innovation Hub facilitates innovation activities from initial concept, through prototyping and integrated testing. Development of innovations procured through the Defence Innovation Hub will fall into four distinct phases depending upon the current maturity level of the program's innovation:
- Phase 1: Concept exploration phase
- Phase 2: Technology demonstration phase
- Phase 3: Prototype system phase
- Phase 4: Integrated capability development phase.
The Defence Innovation Hub seeks proposals aligned with the following six capability streams:
- Intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, space and cyber
- Key enablers
- Land combat and amphibious warfare
- Air and sea lift
- Maritime and anti-submarine warfare
- Strike and air combat.
The government will announce innovation priorities within these streams for each financial year. This may involve changes to priorities from year to year.
Industry and research organisations can submit proposals through the Defence Innovation Portal here.
Stephen Kuper
Steve has an extensive career across government, defence industry and advocacy, having previously worked for cabinet ministers at both Federal and State levels.
