QinetiQ and Forcys partner to strengthen Australia’s maritime safety and security

QinetiQ Australia and Forcys Australia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen Australia’s sovereign capability in maritime assurance, ensuring undersea and autonomous systems are safe, reliable, and ready for operation.

Under this agreement, QinetiQ and Forcys will work together to deliver next generation deployable underwater ranges and related test systems, the two companies say. These are essential in enabling Australia’s ability to measure, verify, and improve the performance of submarines, autonomous vessels, and other undersea technologies, helping Defence to make faster, better-informed decisions.

This collaboration supports the Australian Government’s Defence Strategic Review and AUKUS Pillar 2 objectives, they add, advancing sovereign industrial capability and enabling Defence to assure complex undersea and multi-domain systems across allied operations.

“The ability of deployable ranges to track underwater assets with precision will provide the Australian Defence Force with the flexibility to test and evaluate their assets in environments that provide the greatest chance of operational success,” said Sean Leydon, Regional Manager Asia Pacific, Forcys.

“Forcys, together with their technology partners Sonardyne and Chelsea Technologies, brings over 50 years of experience in the field of underwater tracking. We look forward to partnering with QinetiQ in providing underwater communications and deployed range operations to support our customers with the introduction of ever-increasing numbers of autonomous underwater vehicles.”

The partnership of Australian subsidiaries of UK and US prime contractors brings together QinetiQ’s global expertise in defence Test and Evaluation, mission assurance and range management, with Forcys’ world leading underwater sensing and communication technologies, the two companies say. Together, the they will develop and operate advanced tools that assure how well maritime platforms and technologies perform, from early design through to real-world use.

“This partnership represents a step-change in how we can deliver sovereign maritime assurance for Australia and its partners,” said Corry Neale, Chief Executive Australia, QinetiQ. “Australia’s security and national interests depend on being able to understand and trust how these systems perform, and as the undersea environment becomes more contested and technology moves faster, Defence needs the ability to test, evaluate and prove new capabilities at home.”