Nova Systems at the ready to aid ADF in testing, evaluation

Achieving the Defence aim of ‘speed to capability’ and delivery of ‘minimum viable capability’ requires sufficient test and evaluation, certification and systems assurance

Nova Systems team working on Advanced Test and Evaluation training development on autonomous underwater vehicles at the Australian Maritime College.

The government wants the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to have the most advanced capabilities, as quickly as possible. This is clear from recent Defence reviews and strategy papers.

Achieving the Defence aim of “speed to capability” and delivery of “minimum viable capability” requires sufficient test and evaluation, certification and systems assurance (T&ECSA), particularly a focus on testing early during the development process to identify and mitigate any deficiencies. This will become more important under the AUKUS agreement as we buy more capabilities from our partners, which means T&ECSA is more important than ever.

Its role is to assure that capabilities are safe and operationally viable from design through to disposal, and at all points in between.

It provides confidence that advanced capabilities, such as the AUKUS Pillar II ambitions in artificial intelligence and hypersonics, can be deployed and used by our ADF safely, and that they will deliver in the field to realise the National Defence Strategy of Denial.

T&ECSA was identified as one of the government’s seven sovereign Defence industrial priorities (SDIPs), which includes a list of capability needs. All of which Nova Systems has been advancing and leading for the past two decades, as an experienced and trusted provider of T&ECSA to the ADF. T&ECSA is also arguably the most important of the sovereign priorities because it runs across all others.

Australia’s Defence T&E capability has historically been focused on the individual project and platform level. This has restricted the potential to address fundamental issues of capacity and resilience, including workforce, facilities and technology. Additionally, it has limited options for continuous improvement of Defence T&E to ensure currency with new and emerging systems and solutions across the joint force. To its credit, Defence has recognised and made significant efforts to rectify this through its T&E Strategy and SDIP 7, which industry supports and stands ready to help implement.

Dean Rosenfield, CEO Nova Systems.

Nova Systems is an Australian-owned company, founded by two veterans that delivers flight test services, and has expanded over two decades to be a leader in T&ESCA. Through Nova Systems’ T&E Centre of Excellence, we have invested in advanced training development, leveraging a digital engineering, model-based systems engineering, AI, modelling and simulation and specialised new software tools.

Being able to digitally model and simulate scenarios supports the need for speed. It supports dynamic changes to new scenarios and consideration of emerging threats in a digital environment, which is difficult to replicate in a physical environment.

An anticipated shortfall in T&E practitioners growing to 1000 by the end of the decade has been identified by Defence.

As Australian industry leaders, we have a responsibility and role to play to mitigate this. We are actively working to grow and scale our own workforce capability, as well as that of Defence and industry through our advanced training offerings, designed to keep pace with emerging technologies and other rapid changes.

We also have an established sovereign supply chain of more than 500 suppliers, the majority of which are Australian small- and medium-sized enterprises, many with T&ECSA specialist skills and experience.

Nova is the custodian of T&E capability and capacity for Australia and the ADF.

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Dean Rosenfield is chief executive of Nova Systems.