In 2004 Melbourne systems integration firm Tectonica started a Defence Capability Technology Demonstrator (CTD) project to develop a small engine-driven diesel generator to provide soldiers or sections with portable power.

Philip Smart | Adelaide

As the company’s first foray into dealing with defence, Managing Director David Levy now believes the experience gained through that project was just as valuable as the direct revenue it added to the company’s bottom line. It was an education in both how defence does business and the realities of technology use by soldiers.

“The CTD program offered a very good pathway to understanding how defence operates, in addition to providing financial support to develop technology in that area,” Levy explained to ADM. “So really that’s what got us started. And I think when we started out we didn’t really have a good grip on how defence does business. I think once we delivered the program we were transformed as an organisation.”

Tectonica’s niche was in understanding the electro-mechanical side of manufacturing, the cables, connectors, power sources and other paraphernalia around smart electronics.

Defence came back for more, first with “build to print” orders, then with electronic countermeasures. Tectonica was soon building jamming equipment and installation kits for the ASLAV and Bushmaster armoured vehicles.

So by the time Joint Project 5408 Phase 2B was created to provide Australia’s fleet of M113 tracked vehicles with a GPS navigation system, Tectonica had the experience and confidence to bid. Teaming with Honeywell, it was the company’s first experience of working with a major partner, and also the precursor to its first product.

“The system included a Honeywell Talon500 inertial navigation unit, with two displays, which are ours, as well as a keypad for entering waypoints,” Levy said. “And our responsibility was to integrate it all, develop the system architecture so that it all communicated and then present that information to the driver and the commander.

“What became apparent was there was no commercially available display which was certified for military tracked vehicles, and that was small enough and cost effective enough to be introduced into the M113.

“And so that was our opportunity to say we think we can design and manufacture one. We were able to demonstrate that we could and we manufactured about 1,000 control and display units under the program.”

The contract gave Tectonica continuity of work and the ability to branch out in to other areas, which have included crew survivability, explosive ordnance disposal, and soldier worn power management.

And in only the past two years, Tectonica’s main focus has changed from being an integrator to a manufacturer of an export product, with 80 per cent of the company’s activities now directed at the export market.

"Tectonica’s main focus has changed from being an integrator to a manufacturer of an export product, with 80 per cent of the company’s activities now directed at the export market."

And it all came out of that first CTD for a generator, which then led Tectonica’s engineers to think, well now you have all this power, how do you distribute it to your plethora of devices?

The result is the BANTAM soldier worn power management and distribution system, again developed under a CTD, which helps soldiers reap the best from the electronic systems now dominating the battlefield, sensing each attached device and charging or powering it based on user preferences.

This leaves the soldier free to concentrate on their mission, confident that their equipment will last the distance. Its uses are diverse – in May this year Tectonica announced that Rockwell Collins had selected the BANTAM soldier worn power and data hub to be integrated in to its FireStorm integrated targeting system worldwide.

The research goes on. In 2011 Tectonica partnered with The Australian National University and the CSIRO on yet another CTD to see how conductive textiles may replace cables and wires to provide power and data for soldier electronic equipment, with new flexible solar cells providing power.

As a manufacturer, Levy has no doubts about the value of such businesses to Australia, and believes manufacturing needs to be properly supported and valued by both government and everyday Australians.

“We’re converting ideas to products,” he said. “And we’re creating value from nothing, converting those ideas into products and then we’re selling those products around the world. And that has a huge multiplier effect.”