Manufacturing drives innovation and technological change, accounting for a quarter of Australia’s private sector R&D expenditure.

Innovative maritime products continue to flow from Tasmanian companies; in several instances winning greater attention from foreign navies than from the RAN.

Innovation is a journey, and it needs a destination: an end user. With a new White Paper due out soon, Defence is starting to acknowledge once more the benefits of local industry innovation at a time of rapid strategic and technical change, so for DST Group, academia and the Australian defence industry, the journey resumes.

As part of the wider transformation process that the RAAF is undergoing, the replacement of the ageing AP-3C fleet with the Boeing P-8A is on track.

In an effort to get a better picture of what the sustainment efforts are for the surface fleet, ADM Editor Katherine Ziesing spoke to both NSM (a joint venture of UGL and Babcock) about their work on the ANZAC fleet and Atlantic & Peninsula Australia Pty Limited (A&P Australia) about their work on HMAS Choules.

The horizons of unmanned underwater technology stretch from meeting current operational requirements to future scenarios more akin to science fiction.

With Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs) coming on stream later in the decade and the Future Submarine and Frigate programs on the horizon, the Royal Australian Navy’s undersea warfare capability is set to receive a significant boost.

Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) can provide a practical endorsement of its bid to supply Australia’s Future Submarine - a state-of-the-art shipyard with six submarines under construction, three more undergoing refit or maintenance, and ongoing research and development activity.

As Australia lurches unsteadily towards acquisition of new submarines, it's instructive and entertaining to consider another submarine deal on the other side of the world.

With industry still unsure on how the competitive evaluation process will work in practical terms, the RUSI-hosted Sub Summit in Adelaide was a timely opportunity to bring together an interesting array of speakers on the process and options being put forward.

Some conferences are worthy but reiterative, others are genuinely informative and have the power to influence, and such was the case with the Future Surface Fleet conference organised by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

The Swedes have been building submarines in one shape or another for over a century for both themselves and international customers. The pedigree has string roots in the Baltic but Swedish submarines are literally all over the globe.

At first glance, the photo on the wall of the Daronmont lab in Adelaide could be any employee’s holiday snap, the classic sandy beach and calm blue water, shot from a boat offshore.

One of Defence’s goals is to reduce reliance on large scale exercises through the increased adoption of simulation and each new project now has to consider how it can employ simulation to increase capability, drive down recurring cost and maximise collective training benefit.

Over the last century considerable resources were devoted to research into paint and camouflage for ships, especially during the two World Wars

To no-one’s surprise, the primarily anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role originally envisaged for the Future Frigate replacement for the RAN’s workhorse Anzac class fleet has been superseded by much broader requirements, including area air defence.