Updated 9:39am Friday 18th August 2017
Nigel Pittaway | Adelaide
The third annual DST Group Partnerships Week event is being held in Adelaide this week and has attracted record numbers of delegates from across industry, academia and Defence.
The event is being held at DST Group's Edinburgh facility, and this year coincides with National Science Week. Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky said the organisation has been overwhelmed with applications this year and its popularity has been underlined on Tuesday, the first day of the event, by queues of traffic waiting to get into the carpark.
Dr Zelinsky said the partnerships reaffirmed DST Group's commitment to teamwork and collaboration.
“Over the past two years this flagship event has highlighted the importance of continuing to strengthen our external engagement while opening opportunties for collaboration to achieve capability outcomes for Australia's defence and national security,” he said in his opening address. “This year, we have more direct involvement in the program by our partners in industry, academia and Defence and our STEM education shareholders.”
Dr Zelinsky said the previous two events were focused on showcasing the organisation's capabilities, but this year the focus is on understanding what industry and academia are capable of. He also used the opportunity to formally announce the Small Business Innovation Research for Development Program.
“We want to focus more on small business,” he said. “Australia has a fantastic small business sector and we invite them to pitch their capabilities to Defence.”
The program will run in two stages, the first focusing on early research into the feasibility of technology, and the second on testing technology under laboratory conditions.
A number of partnerships have been announced during the event. DST Group and Sonartech Atlas signed a three-year agreement on Thursday to help build naval capability in short time signal analysis, on-board signature management systems and multi-sensor detection, tracking and data fusion.
A 30-month agreement with engineering firm DefendTex was also announced, covering research into energetic materials and systems. New technologies will be investigated for high performance solid rocket propellants, as well as new systems for delivery of weapons.
A five-year agreement has been signed with Chemring Australia to explore capabilities and advanced techniques for the manufacture of high performance countermeasures that hide aircraft from radar detection and deflect heat-seeking missiles. The research will also examine the use of more efficient manufacturing technologies, such as resonant acoustic mixing, and novel concepts for pyrotechnic device, allowing for the development of an advanced flare capability to provide protection against increasingly sophisticated missile systems.
A more detailed report on the DST Partnerships Week event will appear in the October issue of ADM.