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
An undisclosed Australian law enforcement agency has selected Sydney-based DroneShield Ltd to deliver advanced counter-drone solutions under a contract valued at over $1 million. This sale reinforces the agency’s commitment to safeguarding public safety and national security in the face of evolving…
The Australian Department of Defence in partnership with Lockheed Martin has connected for the first time F-35A Lightning II simulators at RAAF Bases Williamtown and Tindal using the F-35 Distributed Mission Training (DMT) network. Lockheed Martin and the RAAF successfully…
Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA), through Mission Talon Strike, has issued a Request for Tenders (RFT) for technologies that can address the Problem Statement, “How might we strike land targets from medium range with low cost, and launched loitering…
The US Office of Naval Research - Global (ONRG) is seeking proposals for its new Global Innovation Joint Challenge: AI for Advancing Maritime Security. ONRG is seeking proposals that define challenging and realistic maritime scene perception scenarios represented by real-world…
Defence has released an Invitation to Register (ITR) Interest in fuze development and manufacture. It is seeking a lead industry partner (together with their SME network and supply chain) to undertake Australian domestic prototype design, development and manufacture of two types…
The Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator, ASCA, has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Mission Syracuse, a two-stage search for technologies to enhance Defence’s Counter Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-sUAS) capabilities. The Mission is encapsulated in a simple problem statement:…
Californian company Stratolaunch has completed its second hypersonic flight and recovery with the Talon-A2 (TA-2) fully autonomous vehicle. This took place in March and follows successful first hypersonic flight of Talon-A2 in December 2024 and confirmed the reusability of the…
The US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the US Joint Counter-small UAS Office (JCO), have announced a new solicitation for Low-Collateral Defeat (LCD) options supporting the Replicator 2 initiative that can be scaled and integrate into existing Counter Small Unmanned Aerial…
The UK Ministry of Defence has declared operational its first-of-a-kind StormShroud autonomous Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS), based on lessons learned in Ukraine. The UK MoD says StormShroud will fly alongside crewed aircraft in frontline missions to knock out or blind…
The US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), in collaboration with US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), seeks to identify solutions for scalable, cost-effective Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) detection, identification, and tracking. Submissions are due by 20 May, 2025. This challenge aims to enhance…
