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
Groton, Connecticut-based undersea surveillance specialist ThayerMahan has unveiled a new version of the Ocius Bluebottle - a persistent unmanned undersea surveillance vessel that supports the Undersea Warfare objectives of the trilateral AUKUS Pillar II. The vessel, christened Outpost TM001, delivers…
Virginia-based Leidos has announced a new Uncrewed Undersea Vessel (UUV), Sea Dart. This is a high-performance, low-cost, flexible and adaptable UUV designed to support the US Navy and commercial customers across a broad range of missions, the company says. “For…
British soldiers have successfully tracked, targeted and defeated swarms of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) in the latest trial of a new directed energy weapon developed in the UK. The RapidDestroyer was developed by a Thales UK-led consortium and uses Radio…
At almost the same time that it issued the AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge, which focusses on undersea communications, the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has issued a formal solicitation to industry for what it terms a CAMP, or Combat Autonomous…
UK company BAE Systems has developed innovative new approaches in the production of energetics and propellants to strengthen artillery supply chain resilience for the UK and its allies. These developments will deliver a sixteen-fold increase in production capacity of 155mm…
Sydney based Q-CTRL, a global leader in quantum infrastructure software, has announced successful field trials of a new generation of quantum-assured navigation solutions validated to outperform comparable conventional alternatives in challenging real-world settings. This marks the first achievement of commercial…
To ensure US energy dominance, the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), with the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force, has named eight companies as eligible to demonstrate the ability to deliver compliant, safe, secure and…
Canadian company Kraken Robotics Inc. has received new orders totaling C$11 million ($12.6 million) for SeaPower™ pressure tolerant batteries for Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles (UUVs). This brings year-to-date new battery orders to $45 million ($51.5 million), driven predominantly by UUVs for…
The Adelaide-based Defence Trailblazer has invested some $135 million in 35 industry led projects as of the end of the first quarter of 2025, with another 19 projects in the pipeline. These projects, the Trailblazer says, will fast-track the translation…
Defence’s Science and Technology Group (DSTG) is leading sovereign quantum research to enhance secure timing technologies and provide unique operational advantage to the ADF. This ground-breaking project will enhance the ADF ability to operate in contested environments when Global Positioning…
