Boeing has committed more than $5 million to an 18-month development program, commencing in February, to train, qualify, and transfer proprietary intellectual property and knowledge to its Australian partners as part of its satellite manufacturing plans under JP9102.
Boeing says it is creating almost 100 highly skilled Australian manufacturing and support jobs through the development program, to support Australia’s growing space industry.
Quickstep Holdings, Crystalaid, Ferra, Nupress, Cablex, Lovitt, and Levett have signed memorandums of agreement to be part of Boeing’s advanced satellite manufacturing team.
“These seven local suppliers will manufacture a wide variety of products from complex bus, payload and solar array composite structural assemblies to circuit card assemblies, harnesses, and various mechanism and machine part assemblies,” Kathryn Burr, JP9102 Program Manager said,
“We are investing in these partnerships ahead of the JP9102 down-select decision. We are helping these suppliers to build the capability they need to be part of Australia’s space sector and will actively look for opportunities for them to be part of our broader supply chain for Boeing Defence Australia and Boeing Space and Launch."
In a press release, Boeing said that core to its approach was to 'identify organisations that have the drive, innovation and capacity to play a key part in growing Australia’s space capability'.
The addition of these seven Australian manufacturers boosts Boeing’s local satellite manufacturing capability, with additive manufacturing partnerships with RMIT and Titomic already in place.
Boeing’s JP9102 Australian industry team also includes Saber Astronautics, Clearbox Systems, Leidos, ViaSat, and the Indigenous Defence and Infrastructure Consortium.