Page 32 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec21-Jan22

32 DEFENCE BUSINESS BMS
DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
“My personal view is that the digital advantage is best re- alised at the headquarters node level. But there’s no doubt in my mind a section commander can benefit from a digital awareness and a capacity to hand off targets to his people.
“We’ve been ready to do a weapon integration capability with Army for some time; the capacity is there in the new 9.1 release and could have been in 7.1.”
SOVEREIGN CONTROL
Milestones already achieved in the company’s transformation program included submission of an updated Foreign Owner- ship, Control and Influence declaration and DISP Level 2 ap-
Secretary of Joint Systems within CASG and Deputy Sec- retary CASG had ensured ELSA was aligned to Australian government and Defence intent, the report stated.
The Melbourne-based Human and Machine Teaming Centre of Excellence launched by ELSA in February in partnership with the Victorian government would drive fu- ture sovereign R&D and commercialisation of both defence and commercial technologies, McLachlan pointed out.
The company had been cleared to bid for Land 200 Tranche 3, and had also been shortlisted for Land 125/4. This will deliver an integrated soldier system (ISS) integrat- ing all elements and subsystems used, worn or carried by soldiers in any operational context or environment, for up to 72 hours without resupply. It excludes personal weapons and communications equipment, which are managed by sep- arate, related projects, but will include unmanned ground and aerial systems and self-learning machines.
“We’ve got a huge amount to offer, particularly with a system where you can really make robotics and artificial intelligence integration available,” McLachlan commented.
“We have the advantage of being able to learn lessons from Israel’s army program and other programs around the world we’re already contributing to.
“One of the things we’re a long way down the track on is the integration of third-party robotics into a single com- mand and control controller. We’ll bring a lot of Australian SME partners on board to integrated their offerings into the system we will put forward.”
ELSA’s September decision to join the Australian Missile Corporation had also opened the way to transfer technologies for Australian manufacture – in particular the Iron Fist ac- tive protection system under consideration for the Land 400 Phase 3 IFV requirement “and a raft of other capabilities.”
A government announcement on the future of the BMS was understood to be imminent as ADM closed for press. ■
“WE’LL BRING A LOT OF AUSTRALIAN SME PARTNERS ON BOARD TO INTEGRATED THEIR OFFERINGS INTO THE SYSTEM WE WILL PUT FORWARD”
plication, McLachlan disclosed. Staggered changes to ensure Aus- tralian citizens, with national security clearances where appropriate, fill key positions had involved the appointment of a new Australian Chair (Dr Karen Stanton); new VP Business Develop- ment; new VP Delivery; new Head of Engineering; new Chief of Staff and Chief Security Officer; new Director of Security and Security Advisor; and a
Chief Information Security Officer. Additionally, an all-Australian secu- rity-cleared Security Committee had been established to exclusively consider all security matters on behalf of the
Board of Directors.
Meanwhile, a partnership signed in June with profession-
al services company Accenture would support the design, development, and implementation of ICT infrastructure to augment ELSA’s existing capacity to produce secure and trusted sovereign products.
Meetings and briefings to the Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence, Chief of Army, Acting First Assistant
RIGHT: ELSA MD
Paul McLachlan demonstrates the BMS system
ELSA