Page 50 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2019
P. 50

FROM THE SOURCE
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
Of all the Defence technologies the ADF operates perhaps the hardest to demonstrate are the magic black boxes behind communications, cyber and EW. Rohde & Schwarz has been invisible in Australia for almost four decades. ADM Managing Editor Katherine Ziesing caught up with new MD Gareth Evans to talk about the expanding Australian business.
Gareth Evans
Managing Director
Rohde & Schwarz Australia
Managing Director Rohde & Schwarz Australia
Executive General Manager, Defence and Security SYSTRA Scott Lister
Senior Systems Engineering Manager Thales Australia
Independent Transformation Consultant (ICT, Rail, Retail) Perth Australia
Head of Systems Engineering (Director) Thales Defence UK
Senior Radar Systems Engineer Raytheon Systems UK
Airport Systems Engineer Department of Trade & Industry UK
ICT and Computer Systems Manager Computer Personnel UK
Networking Systems Analyst Budget Insurance Plc UK
EOSHO UK Ltd UK Company Director (ICT)
ADM: Rohde & Schwarz has been in Australia since 1981 but has flown under the radar in many ways. Can you give us an overview of the business here, between the civil and defence work?
EVANS: Rohde & Schwarz has been sup- porting the Commonwealth for almost 40 years where we are a trusted provider, a re- liable partner to our clients where we have been focused on delivering innovative tech- nological solutions to the diverse business fields of air traffic control, wireless commu- nications, RF test & measurement, military secure communications, cyber security and network technology.
Our test and measurement clients in De- fence and the civil market have very com- plex requirements and we’ve been teaming with them to be able to develop trusted solutions to solve their challenges. For ex- ample, we have just completed Boeing’s MIL- STD-461 EMC/EMI Test Systems and Chamber in Brisbane.
The mix of civil and Defence work has fluctuated over the years as Defence pro- grams ebb and flow but we’ve got a good, balance between the markets we support.
ADM: Apart from the work on the Air Traffic Management Towers a decade ago, do you have a role in the OneSky program? EVANS: We’ve been working with Air Services since the mid 2000s, where we
provide the majority of their VHF radios. We continue to have a very good relation- ship with Air Services and we are definitely looking at options to better support their various programs going forward, not least in the radio requirements but also in the voice switch environment as well.
We’ve recently provided Airways NZ with a full IP based voice switching system and I think that’s testimony to the innovative proven secure communications solutions that are ideal for programs like OneSky, which we hope to support going forward.
ADM: With the air traffic management work in both the civil and defence sectors over the years, what does that work look like moving forward in Australia and more broadly in the region?
EVANS: Well obviously OneSky is a sig- nificant step change to capability but also to operational concepts, both for civil air traffic and military air traffic. We have very good relationships with the RAAF, not least that we have been providing and sup- porting the TAOT (Transportable Air Op- erations Towers) solution since 2009.
We look forward to being able to upgrade that capability such that it provides en- hanced operational support in the air traf- fic management and control environments. Our product line is state of the art, we have true IP architectures and that means with our products we’re able to provide a low risk, end-to-end integrated solution.
ADM: You’ve done quite a lot of work on the Hobart Class DDGs, lots of magic black boxes working with Raytheon there. Can you walk us through what that program looked like for you?
EVANS: We were providing the external communications solution. For the Air War- fare Destroyer, not only did we successfully achieve or exceeded all of our requirements, we also took an existing design from the F104/F105 in Spain and our Australian team successfully ‘Australianised’ the sys- tem. Further, our well established Austra- lian supply chain provided a significant ma- terial contribution to the overall solution.
ADM: So what’s the level of commonal- ity between the Spanish reference ship and the Australian DDGs?
EVANS: Of course, there are levels of commonality. There were significant modifications required to meet Australian
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GARETH EVANS
PROFILE
50 | May 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au


































































































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