A call to arms for Australian industry: we need to be joining forces now

BAE Systems Australia is focused on continuing to deliver and sustain critically important technologies, including large and complex programs, some of them spanning decades.

BAE Systems’ STRIX Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) protoype.

Australian Defence Force, we hear you. You need to be ready, and Australian industry needs to be united to support you. Sovereign industry and sovereign capability have never been more important. At the same time, the defence industry ecosystem is broadening to include companies across the spectrum – from Defence Primes and SMEs to companies and industries that are new to the sector.

The defence industry in Australia is being shaped by the strategic circumstances it faces: the requirements under milestone pacts such as AUKUS, and seminal documents such as the National Defence Strategy (NDS) released earlier this year. There is an overwhelming demand for a range of capabilities and yet there is a finite budget to deliver them into the hands of our service men and women in an expedited way.

One non-negotiable everyone will agree on is that we need to continue to deliver on our existing commitments to the ADF. BAE Systems Australia is focused on continuing to deliver and sustain critically important technologies, including large and complex programs, some of them spanning decades. That is our priority. We are here for the long haul.

Kisa Christensen.

We also acknowledge the need to increase the ‘‘speed to capability’’ and the need to generate an ‘‘asymmetric advantage’’ on the battlefield. In response, BAE Systems is investing more money in research and development than ever before, with a sevenfold increase in recent years. We are supporting innovation across the company and alongside selected industrial partners. We are adapting how our R&D teams operate and tailoring our processes so that we can innovate and deliver at pace. World leading innovation can – and is – taking place in Defence Primes in Australia!

Our STRIX Tactical Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) development program has taken a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAS concept and delivered (and is currently testing) a prototype in less than two years.

Working alongside Perth-based SME Innovaero, we’ve developed a first-of-type, tactical armed UAS wholly designed, built and tested in Australia. The Vehicle Management System (VMS) used to autonomously fly this platform leverages the same BAE Systems technology on autonomous platforms including the Australian Army’s M113 Optionally Crewed Combat Vehicles (OCCVs) and the MQ-28 Ghost Bat. There are more examples that will feature in this space, some of them breaking cover soon.

Innovation is critical to delivering an asymmetric advantage and I would argue that partnering across the defence industry ecosystem needs more focus as a critical enabler. Innovating in isolation will not deliver the best outcomes. Now, more than ever, cross-industry partnerships, as well as with government and academia, will ensure soldiers, sailors and aviators get the capability they need when they need it.

To paraphrase one former US Defence secretary, you go with the industry you have rather than the industry you might want or wish to have at a later time. So, let’s aim to be the industry we need to be now – and let’s do it together!

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Kisa Christensen is director of the Red Ochre Autonomy and Sensors Line of Business at BAE Systems Australia.