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
Australia’s Additive Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (AMCRC) has opened in Melbourne. The AMCRC has been established with $57.5 million in Commonwealth Government funding through the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. However, AMCRC also brings together 13 leading Australian universities,…
Defence has invested $19 million in the Australian Submarine Supplier Qualification (AUSSQ) Pilot. Defence awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Australia an initial $9.6 million contract to deliver the pilot phase of the AUSSQ program in March 2025, and has invested…
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President of the United States Donald Trump have signed a landmark bilateral framework on critical minerals and rare earths at the White House in Washington DC. These commodities are essential for defence and other…
US defence prime L3Harris Technologies has been awarded a US$2.26 billion ($3.47 billion) contract to build an undisclosed number of Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft for the Republic of Korea Air Force. The announcement, by L3Harris and Bombardier,…
Costa Mesa-based Anduril Industries has delivered a rapidly deployable kit of field-proven Counter-Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-UAS) to USNORTHCOM to respond to the growing threat of unauthorized drones. The system was recently demonstrated at EX Falcon Peak 25.2 at Eglin Air…
Astroscale Holdings, a Japanese leader in the emergent science of satellite servicing, or On-Orbit Servicing (OOS), has signed a three-year MoU with Australian company High Earth Robotics Pty Limited (HEO), an acknowledged market leader in non-earth imaging and space-based Space…
Sydney-based DroneShield has unveiled its DroneSentry-C2 Enterprise (C2E), a new software platform designed to provide strategic-level command and control for large-scale and distributed counter-drone operations. The company has received its first order for C2E from a European multi-site customer in a…
The governments of Australia and the United States and Defence prime contractor Lockheed Martin havesigned a Joint Statement of Intent on co-production of guided weapons. The two governments have also opened a new joint office in Huntsville, Alabama, to enhance…
Californian company Anduril Industries has unveiled EagleEye, a modular, AI-powered family of systems that unifies command and control, digital vision, and survivability within a single, adaptive architecture and light weight Heads-Up Display (HUD). The company has partnered with commercial leaders…
Stratford-based Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, has unveiled an Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) version of the venerable Black Hawk helicopter, the S-70UAS™ U-Hawk™. This is a Group 5 UAS with 25% more cargo space than a typical Black Hawk. Sikorsky…
