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
The Melbourne-based Australian Association for Uncrewed Systems (AAUS) and the Australian Certified UAV Operators (ACUO) will unite under a single banner to better represent and advocate for Australia’s uncrewed systems sector. AAUS will serve as the peak body for the…
Defence industry magazine ADM reports that the Australian Army’s 1st Armoured Regiment will trial a modified version of Newcastle-based 3ME’s electrically propelled Bushmaster ePMV in its new role as an experimental unit. Army unveiled the ePMV, powered by a 113-kilowatt-hour battery, at…
Melbourne-based AIM Defence has delivered two more of its Fractl high-powered counter-drone laser systems to Defence in a contract worth $4.8 million. The deal, signed at the end of August, comes less than four months after the Melbourne-based company supplied Defence…
The RAN will arm itself with Raytheon SM2 Block IIIC and SM6 missiles under a $7 billion agreement with the United States. The SM2 Block IIIC and SM6 are said by Defence to be the most advanced air and missile…
In a move designed to create the leading AUKUS cybersecurity technology firm, UK cyber company Amiosec Limited and Canberra-based Penten Pty Limited have announced they will merge. The merger is set to create a major provider of digital information security…
Canadian rocket manufacturer Reaction Dynamics will conduct the inaugural launch and flight of its RE-102 hybrid rocket engine and Aurora vehicle from Southern Launch’s Koonibba Test Range in South Australia in 2025. The Aurora suborbital mission will serve as the…
The Australian Government will establish a consolidated Commonwealth-owned Defence Precinct at Western Australia’s Henderson shipyard, near Fremantle, to underpin its investment in defence capabilities in the West over the next two decades and support up to 10,000 well-paid, high-skilled local…
The first seven RAN enlisted sailors have graduated from the United States Navy Nuclear Power School. The seven sailors, alongside a third group of RAN officers who also graduated, are the pioneers towards Australia establishing a sovereign conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine…
Adelaide-based Navy veteran with Parkinson’s Disease, Mike ‘Skipper’ Aitchison, is preparing to walk Papua New Guinea’s iconic Kokoda Track for the second time. This time, however, he’s looking for veterans and others impacted by Parkinson’s to join him and unleash…
Unless you actually read it properly, it’s easy to dismiss Defence’s new Innovation Science and Technology strategy as a DSTG-only thing, and therefore of only marginal relevance to the ‘real world’. Read the Strategy carefully – it’s a genuine whole-of-Defence…
