Nova Systems has announced it will invest an initial $2 million to establish an Australian-first Test and Evaluation Centre of Excellence – a central hub supporting sovereign defence capability, and research, digital technologies, training and ideas.
The concept was announced yesterday by Nova Systems Chief Executive Officer Jim McDowell at the 2022 SETE Conference in Canberra.
The hub will bring together Defence, industry and academia to deliver integrated joint force Test and Evaluation (T&E) and capability assurance.
According to the company, the T&E CoE will aim to:
- Support the acceleration of emerging technologies (for example digital twins and synthetics).
- Enable collaboration across industry and academia to develop 'sovereign and enduring' T&E capability.
- Ensure the long-term sustainability of the Australian T&E workforce.
- Deliver innovation and Research and Development activities.
- Deliver T&E practitioner training and professional short courses.
- Deliver subject-matter experts in the field of T&E to distribute in-depth knowledge through training, conferences, seminars, concepts and papers.
Nova Systems says there is also scope for a technology incubator intended to create a national and international focus on the development of new digital tools and methodologies for capability assurance – “assurance technology” or “Assuretech”.
“Nova Systems is proud to be unveiling our plans to open an Australian-first Test and Evaluation Centre of Excellence bringing together the brightest minds, cutting edge research, training and collaboration to create and sustain a sovereign T&E capability that is operationally critical to our nation’s defence mission,” Nova Systems Chief Executive Officer Jim McDowell said.
“In the face of increasing global uncertainty, new threats, reduced warning time and insecure global supply chains, it’s a significant time in our history to secure our sovereign capabilities.
“T&E is Nova Systems’ bread and butter; something we have been leading the way in for more than 20 years.
“Every platform across all domains – land, maritime, air, space and cyber must be tested and assured from concept all the way to disposal – and this is exactly the expertise we deliver.
“Defence is becoming increasingly complex and integrated with a focus on joint force capability, we need to continually evolve our methods to keep the best capability in the hands of our defence forces.
“We envision the Nova Systems T&E CoE will lead and develop new and exciting ways of doing things for the benefit of our nation."