Page 21 - Australian Defence Magazine Oct 2018

Innovation award winners
KATHERINE ZIESING | ADELAIDE
MINISTER for Defence Christopher Pyne handed out $30,000 worth of prize money under the innovation award scheme from the organisers of Land Forces.
“The Land Forces 2018 Innovation Awards recognise the growing pool of re- search and innovation evident in the Austra- lian defence industry, and the commitment to take concepts all the way from brilliant idea to tangible products and services,” Land Forces 2018 CEO Ian Honnery said. “This year’s record 31 entries reflect recent greater focus on Australian innovation from industry, Defence and government.”
The winners were:
• DroneShield for their work on Drone-
Gun for the SME Innovation Grant
• Angus Bean from DroneShield for the
Young Innovator Award
• Currawong Battlespace Communica-
tions Systems from Boeing for the Na-
tional Innovation Award
• Currawong Battlespace Communica-
tions Systems from Boeing for the Inno-
vation Awards for ISR and Cyber
• Nplex, a deployable health diagnostic system from DMTC and Planet Inno- vation (for innovation in combat equip-
ment and mobility
said that six sensors were installed in four hours by RAAF technicians who were not previously familiar with the NIFTI sys- tem. He added that a maximum speed of Mach 1.27 was reached on the second of two flights and data was successfully trans- mitted to a Data Acquisition Gateway in a pod mounted under the wing of the Hor- net, with no sign of bond degradation. The aircraft was then decommissioned back to operational status in just 45 minutes.
The delivery of the current capabil- ity marks the nearing end of Phase 2 of the NIFTI program, which is due to be com- pleted in February 2019. A forthcoming Phase 3 will develop additional sensor ca- pabilities, which will be tested on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as well as adapting the system for use on rotary wing platforms.
www.australiandefence.com.au | October 2018 | 21