The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has won a major contract as part of a Defence investment program to strengthen the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) decision-making capabilities through advanced digital technologies.
“Through this project, our goal is to leverage our experience and expertise in trusted human-AI teaming to help the Royal Australian Navy achieve a clear decision advantage,” Co-Director of the AAII and leading Chief Investigator of the project, CT Lin, said.
“By applying AI to prioritise sustainment tasks and optimise resource allocation, we aim to translate complex data into faster, more confident decisions that strengthen readiness and resilience across the fleet."
As part of the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator’s (ASCA) Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDT) program delivered by Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG), UTS will receive roughly $3.26 million – allegedly, the largest allocation to a single lead university in this investment round.
“Naval platforms are essentially sophisticated ecosystems. This project gives naval sustainment teams a real decision advantage by helping people and AI work side by side to make faster, better-informed decisions when it matters most,” Director of Marintec, Frank Jensen, stated.
“By moving from reactive maintenance to predictive, real-time insight, this project will lift asset availability, cut sustainment costs and help keep critical platforms in operation.”
The project will bring together artificial intelligence expertise from UTS’s Australian AI Institute (AAII) with leaders in the naval sustainment space to improve readiness, resilience and operational integrity across the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) fleet.
“Collaborating with academia is essential to delivering radical new real-world capability,” Managing Director of Navantia Australia, Israel Lozano, highlighted.
“Applied research is how we turn emerging technologies into practical solutions that address today’s operational and sustainment challenges.”
It was facilitated by Marintec (the Maritime Institute of Technology), a strategic partnership between UTS and Navantia Australia.
Advisory firm ARIA Solutions will support the project through deep naval sustainment expertise, helping translate the research into a deployable capability aligned with Navy’s Materiel Sustainment Agreements and Product Delivery Schedules.
Through the EDT program Decision Advantage Investment, Defence will look to transform complex information into decisive action faster and with greater precision than adversaries.
Decision Advantage is one of six key capability effects outlined in the 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS)
A joint research institute established by UTS and Navantia Australia in 2022, Marintec has brought together academic and industry experience in emerging digital technologies like AI, machine learning and autonomy to drive innovation in the maritime industry.
Backing this project is UTS’s AAII, which was founded in 2017. Through Marintec, AAII will work with Navantia Australia to translate this capability to deliver a tangible operational impact to the RAN.