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
Adelaide-based Inovor Technologies has been selected for Lockheed Martin’s Mentor Protégé Program (MPP), becoming the third Australian Small-to-Medium Enterprise (SME) to do so. Inovor is a member of the team assembled by Lockheed Martin Australia for Joint Project 9102; the…
Adelaide-based Neumann Space has signed partnership agreements with Queensland firm Gilmour Space Technologies and with UK company Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). Neumann Space has developed the world-leading Neumann Drive propulsion system which uses solid metallic propellant and is today…
Brisbane-based Hypersonix Launch Systems Ltd and San Diego-based Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. have announced an exclusive teaming agreement to offer the Hypersonix DART AE Hypersonic System into the US market, integrated with Kratos’ Zeus family of solid rocket…
San Diego-based Shield AI, an American defence technology company, and Port Melbourne-based Sentient Vision Systems have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at delivering a Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) solution for the US Department of Defense (DoD), the ADF and…
US prime contractor Northrop Grumman Corporation has opened a new Hypersonics Capability Center (HCC) in Elkton, Maryland to produce advanced propulsion solutions that can power hypersonic missiles beyond Mach 5. The HCC is the first US facility designed specifically for…
Australian small businesses participating in Boeing Australia’s first Capability Up-Lift Program have graduated with seven Boeing contracts, including agreements with three new suppliers. The year-long Capability Up-Lift Program, designed to support companies who may not have experience working in a…
DroneShield Ltd has won a launch order from an undisclosed Five Eyes Defence customer for a new target area-specific Satellite Denial System. There are multiple Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) used around the world. The US GPS is the best known,…
Just one month after its formation Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) has issued a Request for Information for its first Innovation Challenge. ASCA is seeking information to support an Australian sovereign Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) and trusted autonomy industrial…
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract of undisclosed value by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop and demonstrate a nuclear-powered spacecraft under a project called Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). The project will represent…
Australia’s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise (GWEO) will start by manufacturing guided weapons as part of the US supply chain, following an agreement announced at the 33rd AUSMIN (Australia-US Ministerial) talks at the end of July in Brisbane. The…
