Page 24 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec21-Jan22

24 DEFENCE BUSINESS SOUTHERN GUARDIAN
DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
WHAT IT MEANS FOR DEFENCE
Southern Guardian will have both commercial and defence applications, including involvement in Defence’s primary SDA program, JP9360, although of what nature and to what capacity has not yet been shared.
“Defence is aware of what we are doing, of course, and has a high degree of visibility over that,” Reeman said. “They input ideas and thoughts about how they’d like to see it mature, and that we align, as to make sure that we are all aiming for the same endpoint. It’s a two-way flow. And indeed, we have some activities coming up with Defence over the coming months.”
BELOW: The Greenhill observatory and optical telescope dome there. The facility will be the site of the new 7.3 antenna
“SDA is so broad in its nature that there will be a number of entities, organisations, partnerships that come together to pro- vide our country and Defence with the necessary capability as best judged at that time,” RADM (ret’d) Gilmore said. “That’s why I think that it’s so vitally important that Southern Guard- ian has provided some tangible capability opportunities, right now. And that’s what sets it apart from so many others that will, or could, provide additional or complementary capability as time goes by. Right now, for Defence, there is an opportunity to progress some capability as a core start point to a solution.”
Indeed, Southern Guardian’s architecture will be set up to support ongoing expansion and the addition of new technol- ogies and capabilities, be that from the work of HENSOLDT Australia’s German parent company with the German Aero- space Center (DLR), the German air force (Luftwaffe) and research institutions such as the Fraunhofer Institute, or by bringing in partnerships with other Australian companies.
The Tasmanian Department of State Growth hopes that through local partnerships, Southern Guardian will create an industry cluster, or ecosystem, around SDA.
“We have a lot of fantastic ICT companies, software com- panies, data analytics companies, that could tap into space situational capability and the data that it collects,” Stan Cor- rigan, Director for Science and Technology at the Depart- ment for State Growth said to ADM. “Our industry is very small at this stage, but we’re confident that if we can invest in the right areas, that it will stimulate and attract investment.”
“Southern Guardian is a capability made up of a collec- tion of really unique assets, but it’s also a framework that allows that ability to bring in other ideas, other people, and expand into new areas,” Reeman concluded. “Be that Wide Area Surveillance, or other capabilities that may be of in- terest to Defence, or areas such as space law which is going to become more and more important. As a company, we’re looking forward to what we can jointly derive, jointly de- velop, and then be able to take that potentially not just to Australia but more globally as well.” ■
As to what that endpoint might look like: none has been determined. Rather, Southern Guardian will follow a pro- cess of progressive implementa- tion, continuing to evolve along- side the operating environment. “The timeline is a little uncer- tain and I think it will continue to develop as those different capabilities come online and as things mature,” Professor El- lingsen said. “SDA is an area which is changing and developing very rapidly, so identify- ing where the right niches are and how we’ll fill them is
going to be something which is an ongoing process.” Southern Guardian has demonstrated some basic capa- bilities already, including a couple of experiments earlier this year involving bistatic tracking of rocket bodies and
various other objects.
“When that will move into a more standard routine basis
depends a little on a range of things, including JP9360 – what Defence decides to do with that and where they make their investments,” Professor Ellingsen continued.
COLLABORATION IS KEY
Given its breadth and complexity, SDA is an exercise in col- laboration. TEAM Tasmania suspects that there won’t be one single provider of a mature system. Instead, Southern Guard- ian will likely be part of a national, and global, ecosystem with a number of other entities each playing their own part.
“THE TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN PROACTIVE IN ITS SUPPORT TOWARDS GROWING TASMANIA AS A LEADER IN SPACE”
UTAS