Managing power solutions in uncertain environments is a constant pressure for defence forces. ADM spoke with OzXcorp founder and CEO, Andrew Huett, about the power options the company is developing for the Australian Defence Force, alongside ecoJet Engineering.
OzXcorp was started by Huett in 2019, with a focus on moving recreational power towards electrified solutions.
“That's the DNA of how the business started – because no one in the world was doing it,” Huett told ADM.
“I thought, I've got the right background for this, and that electrification platform has now spread not just into the RV sector in Australia and New Zealand, but we're also operating in the US now.
“We're in essence creating a hybridised trailer, with a very efficient engine to support the domestic electrification and the motive power required for the trailer to tow behind the vehicle.
“We've diversified into the commercial trailer sector as well, which is all the work sites, portable dongas, mining sites across Australia at this stage, and are moving into the US from the commercial side as well next year.”
Based in Tullamarine, Victoria, OzXcorp produces all of its products in Australia, with Huett stressing the importance of sovereign production as the company aims to work with Defence.
“We’re fully certified Australian made, we manufacture all our products here, and part of our sourcing strategy is sovereign, or NATO-aligned for defence,” he said.
"As we move more towards defence, we want to make sure that the capabilities we’re sourcing and our security are aligned with the national requirements.”
Huett said the company had not planned to be in the defence sector, but the robustness of its solutions caught the attention of the ADF. Working alongside South Australian micro turbine company, ecoJet Engineering, OzXcorp is developing lightweight Microturbine Inverter Genset (MTIG) technology that generates, stores, and manages power in deployed uncertain environments to enhance energy resilience and endurance.
“Our products work in very aggressive environments across Australia, so it was only natural to entertain our products for strategic use in the defence sector. We have actually set up a Pacific defence sector, from which our advanced power products will be available to defence,” Huett said.
“In the future, I see us being a pivotal part of bringing scalable power to detachments, and part of the portable and rapid deployment of forwar- facing power needs, especially once the micro turbine matures further.”
The MTIG is a single-soldier lift system that is fuel agnostic and uses no oil to increase agility, adaptability, and energy resilience, as well as reducing supply chain dependency in the field.
Enabled by ecoJet's Micro Turbine Generator (MTG) technology, the company states that the MTIG offers light, compact, quiet, and flexible power to meet the power and energy needs of a modern, technologically advanced ADF.
The Australian Army have supported the development of the MTIG technology through an Army Innovation Day 2021 DIH Phase 2 concept demonstrator project, which saw ecoJet develop the MTG technology to TRL4 and the OzXcorp DCX system reworked to demonstrate a TRL5 concept for the inverter and battery modules.
“We took the risk to collaborate with our friends at ecoJet, who are specifically focusing on the development of the micro turbine itself. While we're experts in power, their focus is around the engine, or the turbine itself,” said Huett on the partnership.
“We've been working together on the Defence contract with them to make sure that the turbine engine and our electrical platforms work in harmony – as an opportunity to develop a low carbon, highly efficient multi fuel platform that suits defence needs.”
OzXcorp gave a functional demonstration of the technology to Defence in July, after a two-year development period. With the restructuring of Defence’s innovation programs, the company is unsure of what’s next and where the next set of funding might be coming from.
“It's a little bit of a waiting game until at least March next year, then we'll see if we get awarded the next phase of the contract to take it to the next maturity level,” said Huett.
The companies state that the MTIG enables asymmetric advantage by uplifting deployed power generation assets to meet the demands of the modern warfighter – an example being the increase in rechargeable drones, which need deployable energy for effective use.
“The most pressing issue facing Defence right now is having adequate, rapidly deployable, and robust power in the ADF to meet the needs and the challenges of the future,” Huett explained.
“I think we underestimate just how quickly power requirements are increasing, and how rapidly the dependence on power is evolving in the landscape of strategic advancement. It is fundamental to success and a strategic edge in any situation.”
Huett told ADM that having the commercial base for the company had allowed OzXcorp to consider developing technology for Defence – having the freedom of innovation that he was concerned they could lose if they started out in the defence sector.
“Ultimately, you can't wait on Defence to run your business, especially for a company like us – we’re only five years old and a very agile startup,” he said.
“You certainly wouldn't want to start up in the defence sector and have your heart set on having a business run off of that. Having the RV sector and having the commercial sector brings cadence to the business, whereas in defence, the variability can be absorbed and we would lose that innovation.
“The hardest part is making sure we understand all of the operational machine and acronyms, and the amount of additional overhead required to manage and structure the contracts.”
Huett raised the time taken to work through the bureaucracy that comes with Defence contracts as a point of difficulty – something that many companies in the sector have struggled with.
“I feel we've become quite comfortable in the last 20 years and it's disappointing that there's adversaries and allies that are getting products into the battlefield much quicker,” he added.
“I'd love to see an ecosystem in the Australian Defence Force that moves equally as quickly as the US Defense Force in terms of innovation and funding.
“One thing Australia has always been good at is innovation, and I feel we have the opportunity here to lead technology, to lead this space.”