“Seeing the whole system brought together and operating in its intended environment reinforces to our team the contribution we are making towards our ultimate objective, which is to put awesome capability into the hands of the Australian warfighter,” said LAND 19 senior program manager Paul Szoboszlay.

“By collaborating and engaging with our industry partners, we are delivering a program that not only meets the customer’s needs but also reinforces Raytheon Australia’s role as the capability partner for Defence.”

The LAND 19 flight trial is expected to open new opportunities in integrated air and missile defence operations as the SRGBAD System is tested for effectiveness against live air targets in a controlled setting.

Flight trial lead Henri Westell said the flight trial was a mammoth task.

“There’s a significant amount of planning that goes into a trial as large and complex as this,” Westell said.

“The scope of the task was only realised through the hard work of a committed and competent inter-organisational team.

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“The recipe for conducting a successful trial involves many different ingredients. Planning, communication, and adaptability are extremely important factors.

“It’s about understanding the capabilities you need to demonstrate, what mission systems you require to execute those capabilities, which people and what expertise you need to achieve success, and what assets or facilities you need to support those people and the capability demonstration.

“After all of that, you have to determine how to do it safely.”

Robert Dougherty

Robert is a senior journalist who has previously worked for Seven West Media in Western Australia, as well as Fairfax Media and Australian Community Media in New South Wales. He has produced national headlines, photography and videography of emergency services, business, community, defence and government news across Australia. Robert graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Public Relations and Journalism at Curtin University, attended student exchange program with Fudan University and holds Tier 1 General Advice certification for Kaplan Professional. Reach out via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via LinkedIn.