Page 60 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

60 FROM THE SOURCE JIM MCDOWELL
APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
JIM MCDOWELL
CEO NOVA SYSTEMS
In the lead up to the Avalon 2023 airshow Nova Systems’ CEO Jim McDowell spoke with ADM Editor Nigel Pittaway about his company’s role in the defence ecosystem and how he sees the industrial landscape in Australia evolving.
ADM: What challenges do you see in the defence sector at the present time?
MCDOWELL: There’s been a continuing challenge in supply of labour. Simply, the demand side has increased so much that the supply side is finding it difficult to keep up. There’s a fair amount of cannibalism going on; people are poaching other people’s people and then they are being poached back again. All that does is drive prices up, so we need to figure out a better way of doing things.
Supply of people is an issue and that was not helped by COVID, where people now have a much greater expecta- tion about working conditions and flexibility, which are challenges that we’ll have to meet. That’s been the big in- ward-looking industry issue.
And then the big outward-looking industry issue would be what’s going to be in the DSR? What does AUKUS mean? Whatever it means, it means we have to do some- thing differently than we’re currently doing, otherwise why have such reviews and arrangements?
Both the demand side and the supply side are going to have to pivot to whatever that’s going to be – which looks like more rapidity, more agility, more commerciality. Have we the capability to do that?
ADM: What is your vision for Nova Systems over the fore- seeable future?
MCDOWELL: There are three things. The first is the Sover- eign Industrial Capability Priority in Test and Evaluation, Certification and Systems Assurance and that it becomes a truly sovereign partnership between the Department and Nova Systems. Nova is still the biggest player in that space in the country, with the ability to be the systems integrator for test and evaluation across the defence enterprise. A true Sovereign Australian Horizontal Prime.
The second goal is to continue to improve our profes- sional services business which has traditionally been our strength, but to also grow the business that is more a solu- tions business where we take more technical risk, and we partner more with the prime contractors in this country and elsewhere.
The third goal is to continue to grow our international footprint, particularly in the United Kingdom, Norway and New Zealand.
ADM: What role will the Nova-EOS Sovereign Missile Al- liance play in the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ord- nance enterprise (GWEO)?