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
Californian company Anduril Industries will open a new 100,000-150,000 square foot manufacturing facility to support large-scale production of its Dive-LD family of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, on the east coast of the USA. By investing…
Sydney-based Quickstep Holdings has received a $925,000 grant from the Commonwealth Department of Science, Industry & Resources (DSIR) under the Moon to Mars initiative, As part of an overall $1.3 million development program, this DSIR grant will fund the acquisition…
French robotics and autonomy company Exail has secured a major contract with Rheinmetall to supply 1004 units of its Advans Ursa Inertial Navigation System (INS) for integration into the German Army Caracal 4x4 vehicles. This agreement follows Rheinmetall's recent larger…
The Australian Department of Defence has launched a $150 million Defence Industry Development Grant (DIDG) program. The Grant, announced in the Defence Industry Development Strategy, will soon be open for applications, says the department The new grant program will provide…
Sydney-based online journal Defence Connect reports that the ADF has conducted live-fire testing of a directed energy weapons system against unmanned drones in Victoria. The Defence Counter-UAS Directed Energy Weapons System, manufactured by high-power laser startup AIM Defence, was demonstrated…
The Australian Army and US Marine Corps have conducted a joint trial of Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled autonomous uncrewed systems at Marine Corps base Quantico in the USA. fly over Northern Virginia. The trial saw an Uncrewed Air System (UAS)…
US firm Anduril has been awarded a US$19 million ($28.7 million) contract to design, build, and test second stage rocket motors for use in the US Navy’s Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) anti-air, surface, and hypersonic missile that is deployable on 60…
French company Exail has been selected to participate in the European Extended Mine Counter Measures (E=MCM) project. The objective of this consortium project, led by Naval Group Belgium, is to establish a future European sovereign capacity in mine warfare. In…
BAE Systems Inc in Nashua, New Hampshire, has received a US$95 million ($142 million) contract from the US Navy for advanced Electronic Warfare (EW) countermeasure pods to protect the P-8A Poseidon Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft from missiles and other threats. The…
The Royal Australian Navy’s six Collins-class submarines will now not be armed with the Tomahawk strike weapon, and will also forego their planned optronics upgrade. The Government’s decisions on the life-of-type extension program have been informed by advice from Defence…
