Navantia Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and the Australian Maritime College (AMC) - University of Tasmania (UTAS), are partnering to fund PhD scholarships to explore hydrodynamic effects for uncrewed surface vessels, and optimisation of hydrogen power plants for uncrewed surface vessels, for the Australian Navy.
The collaboration will see RMIT and AMC join Navantia’s network of academic partners. Under this tri-partite Collaboration Agreement, Navantia Australia, AMC and RMIT have proposed PhD research projects through the federally funded Next Generation Graduates Program (NGGP).
"The collaborations between Navantia Australia, RMIT, and AMC is helping to build a new era of Australian sovereign design and future naval operations," said Israel Lozano, Navantia Australia managing director.
"This collaboration is a game-changer, empowering Australia to develop cutting-edge solutions that will sustain the existing fleet and build the platforms of tomorrow."
Navantia also aims to build sovereign capability for Australian industry through the establishment of its Technology Partner Network (TPN), which will create opportunities for real work for local Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) by enhancing their capability to support naval programs.
In October 2023 Navantia Australia’s inaugural Technology Network Partners met to participate in a workshop to discuss the framework of the Network and the sustainable opportunities for the companies to collaborate in delivering engineering design activities.
The initial TPN cohort includes 14 companies – Australian Maritime Technologies, Atlantic & Peninsula, Beca, BMT, The Design Technology Co, ESI-ALPHATEC, Ghenova Group, HI Fraser, L3Harris, MARENAV, Rubicon Associates, SAGE Group, Taylor Bros, and Thales Above Water Systems.
"Navantia Australia is excited to launch the TPN as a vehicle to promote the development of sovereign defence maritime engineering and design capability," said Jamie Gibbs, Chief Operations Officer.
"The TPN is being established to provide the Royal Australian Navy with the engineering services capability and capacity that it needs now and into the future."
The company has said they will continue to expand the Technology Partner Network to 'suitably qualified companies' over time.
Navantia also announced alongside University of Technology Sydney (UTS) the Maritime Institute of Technology (Marintec) brand, an industry-led joint research institute, and provided an update on key milestones achieved during the past twelve months.
First established in May 2022, Marintec collaborates with partners to develop digital technologies for the maritime industry, and this launch is a significant milestone for Navantia Australia and UTS.
Marintec and UTS Rapido, an industry focused R&D team, are working together on commercial R&D activities to deliver higher technology readiness level (TRL) solutions that have been presented to the Royal Australian Navy and are being demonstrated during Indo Pacific 2023.
Projects include automatic ship routing using digital twin technology to optimise fuel usage, gamification and distributed architecture for naval personnel recruitment, attraction, training, and development, anomaly detection using deep learning models, situational awareness tools, and telecommunications and AI for the operation of autonomous uncrewed surface vehicles.
Presently work is underway to complete the fit-out of a purpose-built facility to house Marintec, located in Sydney’s Tech Central on UTS’s campus, which will commence operating in January 2024 and house 20 researchers.