The Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, today officially opened Thomas Global System’s new Electronic and Embedded Systems Innovation Hub.
Thomas Global Systems is one of the thousands of SMEs around Australia that support the acquisition and sustainment of capability for the ADF.
“The Hub has been designed to optimise innovation, fully developing the technology concepts through to integration for applications in the commercial aerospace and defence markets,” Minister Payne said.
Thomas Global Systems has supplied ground vehicle display systems, mission system solutions, and defence systems sustainment across a number of platforms including the S70B Seahawks, the Australian Light Armoured Vehicle, the M1A1 Abrams Tank, the Collins class submarines, and the Vigilare Integrated Air Defence System.
“Thomas Global System’s approach to harnessing innovation to create cutting-edge capability for the ADF is the type of ingenuity the Turnbull Government is seeking to foster in Australian defence industry,” Minister Payne said.
The initiatives outlined in the new Defence Industry Policy Statement that was released with the 2016 Defence White Paper last week will assist companies like Thomas Global Systems to innovate and generate new capability solutions for the ADF.
The Minister and Thomas Global chairman William Hutchinson formally open the EESI Hub. Credit: ADM Patrick Durrant
“The Defence Industry Policy Statement demonstrates the Turnbull Government’s strategy to bring a new approach to innovation in Defence. This is good for capability, it’s good for industry, and it’s good for the Australian economy and jobs.”
The Defence Industry Policy Statement also sets out the Government’s commitment to reduce the complexity and red tape in doing business with Defence. This will assist Thomas Global Systems and many other small-to-medium enterprises to access opportunities in Defence and to nurture innovative ideas from initial concept, through prototyping and testing, to introduction to service.
"[Thomas represents] a leading edge, leading capability, as huge contributors to defence capability in Australia and exactly the sort of partnership we hope to continue, enhance and develop over the coming years," Minister Payne said.
The White Paper was about delivering certainty to businesses like Thomas, Payne said, in terms of what they will need to deliver to Defence in their roles and it is an effective reset if you like of the relationship between government and industry.
Thomas Global chief technology officer Nelson Mino said so far the networking he had seen in response to the Government's innovation plan was a welcome change.
"We find that industry is talking to one another a lot more because of the general interest in the need to innovate. When you put it front and centre people start to understand that you can't operate in silos," he said.
Speaking about a recent partnership with Hawker Pacific for distribution of Thomas Global's plug and play LCD cockpit displays, Mino said Hawker Pacific had recognised they could add value to the market as the displays eliminate the CRT obsolescence threat allowing operators to get the most out of their existing airframe investment and avoid costly full cockpit upgrades.