Page 48 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2019

FROM THE SOURCE
GARETH EVANS
The TOATS have been an important program for the company in Australia.
Continued from page 50
requirements, in particular to the combat and communications systems. Our work- force capably undertook this engineering and integration work from our facilities in Sydney where our Australian systems engi- neering team were able to come up with the integration design.
We incorporated successfully changes mandated by the RAN, and flowed down in the contract, such that we were ahead of schedule in delivering our part of the con- tract. We have shown our capability across other ships like HMAS Choules (Australia) and the Type 26 Global Combat Ship (UK).
ADM: The sites you have in Sydney and Melbourne; are you doing your own R&D there? Are you looking to export any of the IP or the products that you’re developing? EVANS: We are already exporting capa- bility across the Asia Pacific region, with communications solutions into NZ, Timor Leste and the Philippines. We continue to invest in Australia and we are transferring technology and capability into Australia. We have the full lifecycle engineering ca- pability enhanced by repair, calibration, and accredited laboratories here where we are able to sustain the equipment that we deliver to our Australian and export clients. We are an Authorised Engineering Organ- isation in the RAAF regulatory framework, and have the right governance structures in place to support ITARs compliance.
We have secure facilities for more sensi- tive programs so we’re able to ultimately handle that information in accordance with relevant protocols.
ADM: Given the breadth of Rohde & Schwarz in their home market (Germany) and the wider European Union, what scope do you think there is to bring some of those technologies and IP into the Aus- tralian market?
EVANS: There’s a large amount of scope to be able to do that. Rohde & Schwarz is very much about digital sovereignty, so making sure that the IP and skills are transferred to be able to modify, change and develop that IP are also transferred at the same time. We are focused on becoming a regional centre of excellence such that we’re able to further export our capabilities but also to be able to secure the digital sovereignty of Australia. We need to make sure that we don’t have to refer back to offshore entities to be able to understand what the implications and risks of change are; to be able to take on those ad- ditional requirements and actually produce product lines ourselves in country without third party support.
ADM: What kind of product lines are we talking about producing here in country? EVANS: Secure military communica- tions. We’re very focused on the naval in- tegrated communication solutions at this particular stage. We are the reference ship integrated communication solutions pro- vider for Type 26 and, obviously, as the ref- erence ship for Sea 5000 Future Frigate, the Hunter class. We’re very proud that we have that history with the reference ship.
ADM: How does that play into the wider Australian Industry Capability (AIC) framework which is such a part of the De- fence environment at the moment? What
other steps are you taking to invest in Aus- tralia in terms of growing your workforce?
EVANS: If you’ve seen the job pages at the moment, we’re actively trying to recruit en- gineers and program managers to the busi- ness and we are going through a re-accred- itation process for our laboratories at the moment. We are looking to expand our fa- cilities or make better use of them to be able to accommodate that investment, not least with a presence in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and up in Brisbane. We’re also look- ing for more permanent infrastructure to be able to support those growing teams as well.
ADM: That sounds like quite an organic growth path that you’re going down; are you actively looking at any acquisitions in the Australian market?
EVANS: That’s never off the table but at the moment we’re quite happy with the way that we are – the success that we’re gaining through our sales strategy and part of it is to recognise that we’re not just a box seller, we’re actually an integrated communications solu- tion provider. We started the interview by mentioning this, okay, we’ve flown beneath the radar. We’ve been content and proud of the products that we have delivered and de- veloped for Australia and, over time, our in- herent competency has supported our gradu- ation to comprehensive solution provider.
Our behaviours and the way that we en- gage with clients in partnerships, smart en- terprises has been part of our success. We’re adding value there, and we’re getting very good feedback from our clients about our approach and the fact that we have innova- tive technology and the onshore capability to fully exploit that for our clients gives us a powerful proposition.
In essence, we’re a quality German manu- facturing capability backed by Australian engineering and that’s helped to provide solutions for the Australian client.
ADM: I’m guessing being a German based company, you’re heavily involved in the Industry 4.0 space in Germany. Is that something that you’re transferring to your business here as well in terms of processes? EVANS: We tailor our processes accord- ing to the market. We’ll review those ini- tiatives and see how we can best employ them here locally and there’s an amount of I suppose corporate harmonisation which needs to happen such that we can amortise the benefits of scale properly. We already interchange significant data globally and
48 | May 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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