Defence awards three Information Warfare and Quantum technology contracts

The Department of Defence has awarded three companies contracts worth $9 million for the development of Information Warfare and Quantum Technologies through the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator’s (ASCA) Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDT) program.

The Department says the contracts are in addition to the 21 contracts worth some $60 million announced at the end of 2024. The additional contract recipients are:

• CSIRO – to develop quantum machine learning algorithms to detect and mitigate adversarial and spoofing attacks
• Macquarie University, University of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the University of Technology Sydney – to conduct research into detecting mis- and dis-information
• Silicon Quantum Computing – to develop a sovereign-manufactured quantum-enhanced machine learning processor for Defence

Australia’s Chief Defence Scientist, Professor Tanya Monro AC, said ASCA’s EDT program aims to leverage Australian industry and academia to deliver new technologies that help minimise surprise and defend national interests.

“Through the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator, the Government is aligning to Defence’s highest innovation priorities to support research and capability development on home soil,” she said.

The program is also designed to nurture long-term industry partnerships, accelerating capability development in key areas of priority for Defence.

“Harnessing the collective experience of critical Australian innovators, Defence scientists and military end-users will ensure that Defence is on the front foot at a time of rapid technological development,” Professor Monro said.

“In our challenging strategic environment, we must ensure Australia builds on our research and development strengths to develop future options for delivering asymmetric advantage to our warfighters.”

Quantum technology and information warfare are two of the six key Innovation, Science and Technology (IS&T) priorities identified in the 2024 National Defence Strategy and Defence’s IS&T Strategy, Accelerating Asymmetric Advantage – Delivering more, together.