Innovation and R&D have always been the essential foundations of a strong, sustainable defence industry. Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper, Defence Industry Policy Statement (DIPS) and Defence Integrated Investment Program (DIIP) acknowledge the importance of successful Defence R&D and innovation to the nation’s defence industry and thus to Australian defence policy. The 2020 Defence Force Structure Plan reinforced these foundations.
EX2 was set up by Dr Gregor Ferguson, a defence industry and innovation analyst and consultant, to make a useful contribution in Australia’s new and welcoming defence business environment.
EX2 helps innovators in Defence, the research sector and industry, and especially SMEs, by providing news and insight about innovation in Defence and adjacent sectors such as space, aerospace and resources.
Gregor Ferguson writes, teaches, advises and runs a national program designed to encourage and reward innovators in the defence, aerospace and maritime domains in both industry and the research and academic communities.
View his bio here (PDF opens in new window).
Dr Gregor Ferguson, Ph.D, BA (Hons), MRAeS
New York-based L3Harris Technologies will acquire Los Angeles-based space propulsion specialist Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc for US$4.7 billion. This marks L3Harris’ second acquisition announcement of 2022, demonstrating its continued focus on delivering critical capabilities to warfighters while strengthening the nation’s…
US firm Leidos has been awarded a US$334 million contract to assist the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in developing an air-breathing hypersonic system. The Expendable Hypersonic Multi-mission ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) and Strike program, known as Mayhem, will…
Brisbane-based Black Sky Aerospace (BSA) has successfully fired an Australian-first training rocket for use by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel as a cheaper alternative to the original missiles that can cost tens of thousands or millions of dollars apiece. The…
Emerging Australian biotech company Sementis is engaging with Health Security Systems Australia and Australian universities to enhance the ability of its existing vaccine manufacturing technology to pivot, scale and rapidly deploy in response to emerging health and biosecurity challenges. The…
L3Harris Technologies has delivered the first tranche of more than 100 T7™ Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robots to the U.S. Air Force as part of a contract supporting the USAF’s global EOD mission. The initial four-robot delivery represents the first…
French company Exail, a specialist in underwater drone systems, has signed a contract with the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA - French defence procurement agency) for the rental of an A18D Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for the French Navy. The…
A USAF B-52H Stratofortress has successfully released the first All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) off the Southern California coast. The AGM-183A is manufactured by Lockheed Martin. This test was the first launch of a full prototype operational missile.…
NASA’s Artemis I mission has come to a successful conclusion with the splashdown and recovery of the Orion spacecraft. This mission was an uncrewed, integrated flight test of the launcher and crew capsule hardware and technology that will take humans back…
The Governments of Australian and Japan have agreed, among other things, to strengthen their defence technology relationship following the the Tenth Japan-Australia 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations on 9 December 2022 in Tokyo. The consultations, between the two countries’…
Boeing has blended its local and US expertise to build ground architecture and control systems for Australia’s first defence satellites under the JP9102 program. The systems leverage proven technology from the company’s US Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) and UHF space…
