Black Sky Aerospace has rebranded as Black Sky Industries and opened a new headquarters facility in Logan, Queensland. It intends to create hundreds of advanced manufacturing and defence industry jobs over the next decade as part of an expansion.
“Australia spends $50-$55 billion on defence each year yet we’re lucky to have just one company in the top 100 list of defence suppliers. Black Sky aims to change that,” said co-founder of Black Sky, Dr Vu Tran.
“Having sovereign defence capability will help Australia achieve greater efficiency and resilience in the delivery of defence technologies, and in our ability to protect the nation.”
The company is a local producer of ammonium perchlorate (AP) which is crucial to conventional solid rocket motors used in aerospace and defence industries. It also produces solid rocket propellant and motors, including the Wagtail Rocket Assisted Take-Off (RATO) technology for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and drones.
The company's operations are underpinned by Cortex1, Black Sky’s proprietary software platform, that reaches across the entire business.
“There are myriad benefits to manufacturing locally, including lower geopolitical risks, increased operational transparency, regulatory compliance alignment, intellectual property protection, enhanced ability to customise products, less dependence on international suppliers, reduced exposure to global supply chain disruptions, faster time to market and quality control - with a predictable cost structure," Dr Tran added.