Page 45 - Australian Defence Magazine February 2022

FEBRUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
SATCOM 45
to JP9102 and is now in the final stages of transition to sov- ereignty – Rowse says he has a plan to deliver an end-to-end capability for Australia, based on the UK’s Skynet service.
“We don’t want to bring large numbers of people from overseas, we want to train people in Australia, because we see that as better for Australia. We see training people in Australia as giving the country additional skills and know- how that you simply can’t get from anywhere else,” he says.
“Team Maier is not a supply chain activity, it’s an activity that we’ve put a lot of effort into as part of our delivery and it is also part of our operations and sustainment phases.”
TRAINING AND SKILLING AN INDUSTRY
Rowse adds that Airbus wants to act as the ‘facilitator’ of a general Australian space industry, using the MILSATCOM delivery as a catalyst. “I think training is really critical and that only by training Australians on the ground, will Defence get to their intended state – which is having a sovereign ca- pability with multiple layers of sovereignty,” he explains.
“It is a really good way to build capability for Australian companies. After JP9102 finishes, it will leave Australia with a sovereign capability to build a ground station for MILSATCOM, but also an understanding of how to deliver and sustain the capability. It also gives those companies a really good export capability.”
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