The Hunter's defence industry and innovation sector is set to get a major boost with the impending establishment of a Defence Innovation Hub at Williamtown.
HunterNet Defence, based in Newcastle, hosts one of the largest regional defence conferences in the land, and it recently attracted 120 delegates to get an update of the state of the nation when it comes to the Defence community. With a speakers list that encompasses uniforms, politics and industry, it provides an excellent forum for collaboration and information sharing outside the usual capital city environment.
The NSW Government’s Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald MLC said the region’s defence and related industry is on the cusp of something special.
“The new Defence Research and Innovation Hub at Williamtown Aerospace Centre will be an exciting addition to the region, helping drive more innovative projects and growth in the sector including for start-up businesses,” MacDonald said.
“The initiative is part of the University of Newcastle's innovation network delivered under the NSW Government’s Boosting Business Innovation Program. The Hub will bring the university’s strengths in capabilities such as cyberspace, control systems and autonomous vehicles alongside firms servicing the defence sector to explore commercial opportunities. This is a demonstration of the NSW Defence and Industry Strategy in action.
“The Defence and Industry Strategy, NSW: Strong, Smart and Connected is the NSW Government’s plan to support the national Defence effort and grow defence jobs, investment and innovation in NSW – including in the Hunter.
“The Hunter embodies NSW’s strength in defence force sustainment with Williamtown home to fast-jet maintenance, and now the renewed potential for naval sustainment in Newcastle when the Carrington slipway reopens at the Port,” McDonald said.
Defence business was worth $1.3 billion to the Hunter in 2014-15, a quarter of NSW’s spend, according to NSW Government figures. The new Defence NSW team headed by Commodore (Retd) Peter Scott was also on deck, with CDRE Scott outlining the role of his new team in leading the collaboration charge in the state at the behest of government.
Policy update
Air Vice Marshal Mel Hupfield, Head of Force Design, provided an update on the various policy changes that are filtering through the Defence organisation and their flow on effects for Defence industry. The previous thin veneer of joint capability acquisition that permeated Defence is a thing of the past with the changes that the First Principles Review (FPR) taking effect.
“We cannot afford capabilities that do not integrate with the wider force, either in regard to dollars or time,” AVM Hupfield said. AVM Hupfield outlined the changes in policy as they related to Smart Buyer, the new Capability Life Cycle (which were merged in March this year), and detailed what information the department is looking to release to industry at an unclassified level to help them support one another. These include the CLC and an online Integrated Investment Program (thought still no word on when) to clarify the languages and concepts adopted under the FPR.
“These activities are a collection of commonsense approaches that have become more disciplined and therefore more repeatable,” AVM Hupfield said in regard to the change in procurement processes because “Force Design is not a set and forget function”.
The fact that the new framework saw $7.5 billion worth of programs approved in 2016-2017, well above the old Capability Development Group levels, is testament to the effectiveness of the new policy settings. For those that don’t live and breathe the Canberra bureaucracy it was a good update as to the changes taking place in the department.
These sentiments were echoed by Air Vice Marshal Leigh Gordon, Head of CASG’s Joint Strike Fighter program, who said that the focus had moved from “the cost of doing business to the cost of achieving the outcome”. Highlighting the adage that ”projects come and go but sustainment is forever”, AVM Gordon explained how the Defence community has done a lot of work in getting the most out of their sustainment relationships on many programs and projects.
Also in the JSF vein, Squadron Leader Nathan Draper provided an update on sustainment plans and how they’re coming together. As the first Australian maintenance engineer posted to the US, he is now training the next cadre of maintainers at RAAF Williamtown as the base ramps up to receive the jets at the end of next year.
“There are over 300,000 parts on a JSF from 1,500 suppliers globally,” SQNLDR Draper explained. “That’s a lot of opportunities across the Life of Type.”
While managing Low Observable characteristics is ‘business as usual’ for the US Air Force thanks to the F-22, SQNLDR Draper said that Australia had more in common with the US Marine Corps and their lessons learned as a smaller force moving into 5th Gen space.
“JSF is so much more than just the jet,” SQNLDR Draper said. “You’re buying into a complete system. My guys don’t have to sit in cockpit any more to do their work. They just plug in a laptop. A 5th gen worker is a 4th gen person who has been technologically enabled.”
Collaboration
On the collaboration front, KPMG’s Mike Kalms provided some metrics into how the Defence community performs. In short, not great, according to their survey and research, commissioned by the Centre for Defence Industry Capability last year. The resulting report Defence Capability Collaboration (available on their website – a highly recommended read) found that while most companies thought they were good at collaboration, they rated their partners as less good at it. And this is how every participant responded!
“We as a nation are traditionally quite bad at collaboration,” Kalms said. “But we are getting better.”
Perhaps the most startling insight from the research was that a large part of the Defence community has had no buy in, no agency in this space; the APS. They effectively had not had a pay rise for four years and morale has suffered accordingly.
“We can’t expect them to collaborate when they’re not engaged,” Kalms explained. “The knock on effects are bigger than many people give them credit for and we can’t just roll over the top and expect it to work.”
Dr Mark Petrusma from DST Group also provided an update on how the organisation has expanded its partnering program in the last 12 months. In 2016-2017, DSTG signed $35 million worth of partnering agreements under 348 different guises. Dispensations under the Next Generation Technology Fund saw $15.7 million distributed to 23 universities under 59 projects from a field of 428 applications from 31 universities. The University Research Network framework is also kicking goals with numerous universities signing up to a range of research disciplines.
“The Next Generation Technology Fund is the big R and little d of Research and Development,” Dr Petrusma explained. “The Innovation Hub is the little r and the big D. There is no clear delineation between the two per se, as R&D operates on a continuum.”
This article first appeared in the October edition of ADM.