Page 6 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

6 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LEIDOS COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF COBHAM’S SPECIAL MISSION BUSINESS
LEIDOS has announced the completed acquisition of Cobham Aviation Services Australia’s Special Mission business.
The transaction was previously announced on August 2. The business will be integrated into and operate as part of Leidos Australia and represents Leidos’ entry into the Australian aviation market.
“We are excited and eager to formally welcome Cobham’s Special Mission team to the Leidos family,” said Leidos Chairman and CEO Roger Krone. “Bringing in the
LEFT: The Special Mission business provides airborne border surveillance as well as search and rescue services to the government.
Special Mission business will build on our global airborne ISR capabilities while providing new opportunities for growth. Together with Leidos Australia leadership, I look forward to working with this talented team.”
“On behalf of Leidos, I want to express a warm welcome to the Cobham Special Mission team,” said Leidos Australia Chief Executive Paul Chase. “This team brings a tremendous reputation from across industry and Government. We
look forward to continuing to provide exceptional service to our customers.”
“It’s a milestone day for all of us at Cobham Special Mission and the beginning of a new and exciting chapter as we become Leidos,” said Leidos Australia Vice President of Airborne Solutions James Woodhams (formerly Cobham Special Mission Managing Director).
The Special Mission business provides airborne border surveillance as well as search and rescue services to the Federal Government. The business owns and operates 14 modified aircraft to deliver critical services across Australia, including: conducting one of the world’s largest managed service civil maritime surveillance operations under contract with the Australian Border Force while patrolling Australia’s 8.2 million square kilometre Exclusive Economic Zone; providing fixed wing search-and- rescue response capability over land and sea on behalf of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA); and operating a highly-specialised mission training system for more than 30 mission aircrew per year.
BLACK SKY AEROSPACE APPROVED TO TEST GUIDED WEAPONS
QUEENSLAND rocket company Black Sky Aerospace (BSA) has received approval to test guided weapons from its Southern Queensland launch site in what is believed to be the first ever such approval for a civilian operator.
Chief Executive Officer Blake Nikolic said that previous launches were conducted under the restrictions of civilian launch, and the new approval will allow the guidance system to be tested, integrated and refined to a much higher standard.
“This is a major milestone as our locally designed and built system moves towards qualification for availability to approved allies and partners,” Nikolic said.
“The continued hostility in Ukraine and declining stability in the Indo Pacific region make this program a vital part of developing Australian Industry Capability,” he said.
“The approval comes only two months after BSA successfully tested rockets with an integrated launch pod allowing unprecedented rapid development of an Australian guided weapon platform.
“Under current plans, development of a local guided weapon solution is not planned to start for up to five years. We at BSA don’t believe we have that amount of time, so we started work at the beginning of this year,” Nikolic said.
BSA Chief of Launch Operations, Spiro Stamatopoulos said that operation of this type of system requires special approvals from the Federal Government, including from the Civil
RIGHT: BSA avionics engineers Jessica Bender (L) and Yas Sellwood, and CEO Blake Nikolic (R), with one of the company’s guided weapons.
Aviation Safety Authority, or CASA. “Rigorous scrutiny on our processes and simulations had been undertaken over many months to ensure launching guided weapons could be performed
safely,” Stamatopoulos said.
“I’d like to pay tribute to the CASA
regulators who worked hard on this first of a kind approval which clears a pathway for future developments.”
BLACK SKY AEROSPACE
LEIDOS AUSTRALIA