Login
iscover
Defence Materials Technology Centre (DMTC) has been a key part in achieving opportunities for the defence industry, said BAE Systems (BAES) Australia’s head of business strategy Brad Yelland.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Giving a keynote presentation at a conference in Canberra, Yelland said DMTC programs have seen success for BAE Systems and other key industry players.
Yelland discussed the Capability and Technology Demonstration (CTD) Program, its lack of success rate for BAE and other companies and, comparatively, the achievements of DMTC's model.
"Despite having successfully completed countless numbers of capability and technology demonstrations since the start of the CTD Program, and despite the CTD Program being set up as a route to market for innovative ideas, only one of our successful CTDs has resulted in the associated technology or products getting into the hands of our Defence Force," Yelland said.
"Through the DMTC model, however, we have achieved significant success in a number of programs; the DMTC support to setting up the Titanium Machining capability for JSF has resulted in opportunities being realised and significant exports for Australian industry – not just for BAE Systems – and the DMTC support to the Corrosion Prognostic Health Management technology has facilitated successful integration of this technology into the JSF Global Fleet.
"In both of these cases, the end customer was identified and engaged prior to initiating the activities, and so there was a clear route to market. All we had to do was to achieve the objectives of the technology development activity."
Yelland said the approach used by the DMTC has provided BAE Systems and others in the industry a clearer route to market and has made potential customers look to the Australian defence industry.
"Having a clear route to market, having a customer who sees benefit in looking first to Australian industry for their solutions, and having an environment where industry is engaged and kept informed of customer needs early enough to be able to plan, is what is needed to ensure a viable and strong Australian defence industry.
