Page 133 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LAND WARFARE ARMY INNOVATION DAY 133
grouped together by theme to allow Army to look at a broader set of opportunities.
“It’s about having a broader look at all opportunities, so we can be more selective of the opportunities those propos- als present. We try to be broad in our theme description to allow opportunities that reside in that description and let industry come forward with their ideas and to allow inno- vation to occur,” he said.
Quantum Challenges posed to academia and industry. This year the event was extended to two days, overlapping both AID 2022 and the Army Robotics Exposition and attracted demonstrations from around 11 different organisations.
The event was sponsored by Army’s Robotic and Au- tonomous Systems Implementation & Coordination Office (RICO), led by Colonel Robin Smith. “There are a num-
“We fund it through the DIH under the sponsorship of Army, as that’s a trusted and true mechanism for getting into con- tract for those that we downselect.”
While funding for downselected or- ganisations would take their technology forward there are no guarantees that any- thing will in fact be downselected in the first instance.
“The number of applicants and the mix of them is in our control. We’re not com- pelled to use all that funding, there needs to be a value proposition, like all downse- lects,” BRIG Gould added.
“There may not be anything that comes
but I think that’s highly unlikely given what I’ve seen today. I think there will be a few we take forward.”
The theme at AID 2021 was alternative power systems and the demonstrations held at that time have since re- sulted in two contracts being awarded.
QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGE
The Army Quantum Technology Challenge was launched at the event in Brisbane last year, coinciding with the launch of its Quantum Technology Roadmap and a number of
ber of outputs we’re trying to get out of the Army Quantum Technology Road- map,” COL Smith explained. “Funda- mentally it’s about what does Quantum afford Army in the future? And that’s Quantum Sensing, Quantum Comput- ing and Quantum Communications. We approached the idea of having a chal- lenge statement for each one of those, we wanted to draw the technology out of the lab and into the real world.”
The three challenges posed at last year’s event were: Making the ground transparent – the use of quantum sensors to detect subterranean structures and
“THE CHIEF OF ARMY SYMPOSIUM BRINGS TOGETHER INNOVATIVE THINKERS FROM INDUSTRIES LARGE AND SMALL FOR THE APPLIED FOCUS AND PRACTICAL COLLABORATION ON NEW AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES”
out of AID 2022,
track the movement of humans or materiel through tunnels and sewers: Denying the enemy secure communications – the ability to disrupt the space-based communications of adversaries; and Resupplying troops in battle quickly, safely and efficiently – the use of quantum computing solutions to optimise the ability of Army’s logistics chain to resupply soldiers in battle by future autonomous systems.
COL Smith said that thirteen responses were received to the challenges, of which seven were selected and each awarded funding of $50,000 to develop their technologies into a working prototype or simulation, and a 5,000-word
LEFT: Around 20 companies were invited to display their unmanned technology at Army Innovation Day (AID) 2022.
ABOVE: Colonel Robin Smith, head of RICO, and Assistant Minister for Defence Matt Thistlethwaite discuss the solar-enhanced Bushmaster PMV with Praxis Labs’ Katie and Cameron Donaldson at ARX 2022.
NIGEL PITTAWAY
NIGEL PITTAWAY