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
US firm BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems has won a US$1.74 billion ($2.6 billion) contract from US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to build 55,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS) 70mm rockets. The APKWS will be…
Swedish company Saab has revealed Nimbrix, its first ever dedicated Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) missile. The missile has been developed to counter the increasing threat from small UASs on the battlefield. The fire-and-forget missile is being rapidly developed at Saab…
California-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has begun flight-testing its YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), in coordination with the US Air Force (USAF). This continues the company’s rapid creation of new, jet-powered uncrewed platforms chartered by the USAF to…
Melbourne-based Leidos Australia has won the $45.9 million contract to be Defence’s Systems Integration Partner (SIP) in Line of Effort 1 of its Counter-Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-SUAS) Project LAND156. The announcement by Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry, comes…
The Department of Defence has awarded three companies contracts worth $9 million for the development of Information Warfare and Quantum Technologies through the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator’s (ASCA) Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDT) program. The Department says the contracts are…
Perth-based Hofmann Engineering has received a Request for Quotation from US company Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding to supply components for the construction of US Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It could begin supplying components as early as 2026.…
Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) has signed the Copperhead Project Arrangement (PA) with the United Kingdom’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). This will bring together cutting-edge technologies from both countries to develop affordable, next-generation guided weapons systems,…
Stratford, Connecticut-based Sikorsky has announced an initial US$43 million (S67 million) US Army contract to fund the start of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter modernisation. The contract is for design work and will focus on foundational capabilities for modernisation, says Sikorsky,…
Orlando, Florida-based Red 6 has win a contract of undisclosed value from the US Air Force to integrate its ATARS (Airborne Tactical Augmented Reality System) into the F-16 Fighting Falcon, commonly known as the Viper. The virtual reality systems is…
The Royal Navy says it has successfully tested the ability to communicate with Experimental Vessel (XV) Excalibur, its Extra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV), while submerged on the other side of the world at Jervis Bay, NSW. This is the…
