Page 12 - Australian Defence Mag Sep 2020

12 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
NEW LEADERSHIP FOR
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
IN ASIA PACIFIC
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
NORTHROP Grumman has appointed Chris- tine Zeitz as General Manager – Asia Pa- cific, effective July 20, 2020. The new role will enable greater focus and alignment across the region, and will see local chief executives in Australia (Chris Deeble), Ja- pan (Om Prakash) and South Korea (Dong Ha) as members of Zeitz’s integrated team.
“In my role as General Manager Asia Pa- cific, I will be responsible for leading and managing Northrop Grumman’s business in the Asia-Pacific region,” Zeitz explained to ADM. “I will be responsible for the com- pany’s growth and performance in Austra- lia, Japan and South Korea.
“Northrop Grumman views business in the Asia Pacific region as very strategic, so the company is investing in this region. It also aligns really nicely with the recent release of the 2020 Defence Strategic Up- date for Australia and the ongoing need for strong ties with our regional allies.”
Northrop Grumman Australia has grown in leaps and bounds since the company es- tablished a local footprint. With interests in a range of domains, the company is building on its aircraft sustainment business base and growing its business in integrated air and mis- sile defence, autonomous systems (Triton), tactical datalinks, joint C2, satellite commu- nications, cyber, ISR systems, and beyond.
“My role and Christine’s are very com- plementary,” Northrop Grumman Austra- lia Chief Executive Chris Deeble said to ADM. “As the chief executive, my priority is to look to the future for the company and Northrop Grumman Australia specifi- cally with respect to building strong cus- tomer relationships and working with the Department of Defence and other govern- ment agencies. I’ll be looking at those new growth opportunities, nurturing them in the early days and transitioning them to Christine and her team to develop and ma- ture them into new programs. I see this as a seamless partnership and already we are aligned in the path forward.”
ABOVE: Northrop Grumman has appointed Christine Zeitz as General Manager – Asia Pacific.
Regionally there are a number of Northrop Grumman capabilities that the three na- tions have in common. Capabilities like the Joint Strike Fighter will be operated and supported by all three countries and syner- gies could be achieved for regional support of the Global Hawk and Triton capabilities. Both South Korea and Australia also operate a variant of the Wedgetail AEW&C and the future development of that capability will likely have some commonality. Deeble also noted that the regional geostrategic environ- ment may provide additional opportunities “to work closely on things like integrated air and missile defence in the longer term”.
to a 50sq nautical mile AMSA approved area, 20 nautical miles off Ulladulla, where we could operate autonomously.
“However, we are now approved by AMSA to operate Bluebottles as Domestic Commercial Vessels (DCV) under the Ma- rine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012. This means they are permitted to operate autonomously out to the extent of Australia’s EEZ.
“We thank AMSA for working with us to achieve this excellent result,” Dane said.
Bob is now destined for logistics and sea trial tests in Darwin, with next-generation Bluebottle Beth scheduled for completion in September. The vessel will use solar ar- rays embedded in its composites, a design developed by innovative SA-based SME Praxis Aeronautics.
“This will be followed by four more Blue- bottles in 2021, each armed with Thales thin line sonar arrays, radar, cameras and other sensors,” Dane said.
OCIUS USVS APPROVED TO OPERATE IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS
SYDNEY-BASED Ocius has secured formal approval for its unmanned surface vessels (USVs) to sail autonomously within Aus- tralia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“Bob the Bluebottle left Botany Bay heads at 11 am Wednesday 1 July, ar-
LEFT: The first new next-generation Bluebottle arrives in September.
riving at Ulladulla heads at 3pm Thursday 2 July, a distance of 96 nautical miles, averaging 3.4 knots,” CEO Robert Dane said. “Bob used 360-degree cameras, radar, Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and collision avoid- ance software to autonomously navigate safely during the voy-
age, with engineers at our R&D facility at UNSW Campus Randwick and at Charles Darwin University (CDU) Dar- win taking it in turns being the ‘human on the loop’ supervisors.
“Previously, we have escorted USVs out
OCIUS
SUPPLIED