On November 6 Army hosted its fourth consecutive annual Innovation Day at ADFA in Canberra with the theme 'Novel weapons and Novel Effects'.
The event comprised 19 companies (see list below) from Australia, the US, Europe and Israel presenting 25 industry proposals.
The Australian Army’s Head of Land Capability Major General Kathryn Toohey said the event was an important demonstration of the cooperation between Defence and industry.
“Army Innovation Day is an opportunity for industry to present capability options that can shape Army’s approach to novel weapons and novel effects in a combined arms team in a joint environment.
“Throughout the course of today we have explored a range of new technologies including drone and counter drone systems, weapon and ammunition enhancements, electronic counter measures and electronic warfare, and simulation systems.”
MAJGEN Toohey said many of the products will go through the Army’s short-cycle nomination, selection, demonstration and assessment process.
“The Army Innovation Day cycle is designed to get leading edge technology into the hands of soldiers within 12 months.
“Some of the new innovative technology on display will progress to further testing and user evaluation by our soldiers in Army units.”
Army has issued contracts for user evaluations to 21 companies that have presented at the previous Army Innovation Day events. This is a prime opportunity for businesses that may not have experience in working with Defence or have products developed for other markets.
ADM attended the event and will provide a broad summary of the presentations Defence Week 470, due out on Thursday 9th November.
List of companies that presented
- AOS
- DefendTex
- Australian UAV Technologies
- Deakin University
- GPSat Systems
- QinetiQ
- Thales
- My Sky Technologies
- Intelligent Security Integration Australia
- PTSA
- Acteon
- Simcentric
- Solinnov
- Spearpoint
- Techventure
- Unisys
- Penten
- Rheinmetall
- Silentium Defence