The winners of the inaugural AUKUS Innovation Challenge, Canberra firms Advanced Design Technology and Penten, have inked contracts worth $8 million to develop electronic warfare technology for Defence.
The deals were announced on Thursday and cap a year long AUKUS challenge program, the first under the security pact’s Pillar II for advanced technologies.
The two firms’ contracts are with Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) and will deliver capabilities for Pillar II’s strategic push on electronic warfare while “securing” 150 local jobs, the government said.
Electronic Warfare capabilities are considered crucial for situational awareness and communication across multiple domains in contested environments, especially when adversaries attempt to blind or block a command and control capability.
ASCA kicked off the innovation challenge alongside the US Defense Innovation Unit and the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator last March, flagging sensors, closed loop targeting, electronic attack, electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) access, and EMS deception and denial as technologies of interest.
After more than 170 applications, Advanced Design Technology and Penten were announced as the local winners along with Adelaide firm Inovor Technologies in September. Since then, the ACT-based firms have worked with Defence to refine their solutions.
Penten is a provider of cyber and artificial intelligence technology which has been supplying Defence and government agencies since 2018 with around 100 federal contracts.
Advanced Design Technology is a newer supplier with less than a dozen federal deals, mostly in the last two years. It designs and manufactures complex electronic systems, with a focus on electronic and cyber warfare.
Their contracts announced on Thursday will assist with further development and demonstration of electronic warfare prototypes that can address Australian Defence Force operating requirements. But the technology may also be made available to the US and UK forces.
“The AUKUS Innovation Challenge Series is a powerful example of how ASCA is accelerating advanced capabilities for our ADF while ensuring local innovators are at the forefront of Australia’s growing sovereign industrial base,” Defence minister Pat Conroy said.
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