BAE Systems Australia and EPE announce autonomous capability partnership

BAE Systems Australia and EPE have announced a technical partnership to demonstrate advanced autonomous capabilities in Australia.

Announcing the partnership at Land Forces 2022 in Brisbane, the two organisations will collaborate on the development autonomous technologies through BAE Systems’ Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) program, which began this year.

Focused on implementing BAE Systems’ advanced vehicle management systems on to UGVs, the collaboration with EPE aims to develop soldier support systems for the Australian Army.

As Australian agents to the HDT Hunter WOLF (Wheeled Offload Logistics Follower) UGV platform, EPE was initially contracted to provide platform, integration and engineering support as well as test facilities, using the company’s UGV test and evaluation facilities in south-east Queensland.

Operating within a multi-domain autonomy architecture, the program focuses on the integration of UGV mission systems to enable prototyping that will develop certifiable mission systems.

“We are pleased to partner with EPE to help develop and grow sovereign autonomous capability here in Australia," BAE Systems Australia Managing Director for Defence Delivery, Andrew Gresham said.

“It’s critical for businesses like ours to collaborate with Australian industry so we can successfully support the ADF and, working with companies such as EPE provides opportunities to work as one team, creating an environment that fosters innovation.

“Having access to the EPE’s unmanned ground vehicle platform and magnificent test facilities here in South-East Queensland has helped us make significant advances in ground autonomy technology, and we look forward to furthering this work together.”

BAE Systems Australia is an industry partner and the Land Domain Lead to government agency Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre. 

“It’s been an extremely positive experience working with BAE Systems on a shared pursuit of a multi-domain, collaborative and autonomous robotics for Defence at our MILTECS test and assurance facility," EPE’s Director Innovation and Commercialisation Ben Sorensen said.

“Our technical teams are working collaboratively, both virtually and face-to-face, to advance the technology, enhance capability and significantly de-risk future Defence programs.”