Page 60 - Australian Defence Magazine March-April 2022

60 FROM THE SOURCE MATTHEW JONES
MARCH-APRIL 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
MATTHEW JONES
CEO, EOS DEFENCE SYSTEMS
Matthew Jones joined EOS in May 2020 as General Manager Land C4I and is now the inaugural CEO of EOS Defence Systems. Group Editor Ewen Levick spoke with him in February about exports, C4 EDGE, guided weapons, and the future of EOS Defence Systems.
ADM: What is EOS’ footprint in Australia?
The company has operations in Brisbane, a very small pres- ence in Sydney, an expanding footprint in Melbourne and a small presence in Adelaide, but we're mostly based in Can- berra, where we currently have six facilities.
The Brisbane-based facility really is primarily about satel- lite communications and our subsidiary EM Solutions. EM Solutions is a global leader in military SATCOM terminal design and development, and is increasingly becoming the preferred supplier for the Royal Australian Navy; they have also exported satellite terminals to a number of European countries. That’s the primary focus at their facility. We also use that facility for a range of defence and space systems.
Our group headquarters, EOS Defence Systems Australia and EOS Space Systems are located in Symonston in the ACT and we maintain production and research facilities in Hume, Queanbeyan and Mt Stromlo – where we have our space tracking capability.
and fire control to a weapons system on a remote weapon station. Our pedigree is that we’re a space company, and then we’ve taken that technology into control and tracking systems for the land domain, and then it’s been converted into remote weapon stations – which, while they look rela- tively simple, are actually very high technology.
How do we work together? In a group and organisation- al sense, we have a corporate or a group organisation that provides common services to support Defence Systems and Space Systems. Then, within each of those two companies, there is expertise focused on their primary areas of business.
There’s a close working relationship between the busi- nesses through our Directed Energy program, which is focused on delivering a directed energy capability to de- feat UAVs and drones. We're growing the power levels of the laser technology that we’ve been utilising for decades and converting that into a directed energy system that can
Melbourne is a growing centre for program management and engineering development. We will probably be look- 2021 ing to grow our sensor units research
and development team out of our Mel- 2020 bourne facility and, depending on the outcomes of the Land 400 Phase 3 pro-
gram and whether we get up on Team 2016 Redback with Hanwha, that’s also where 2015 our initial tranche of work for Land 400
Phase 3 and T2000 will be conducted. 2012
ADM: How do those teams collabo- 2011 rate?
The common thread that runs through
EOS Group is that tracking and preci- 2010 sion engineering sit behind the things
we do in space with lasers, as well as our remote weapon stations and fire control systems. It’s a common core of the tech- 2004 nology. If we can track a satellite in geo- stationary orbit successfully, we bring
that tracking technology to the land 2003 domain to provide superior engagement
PROFILE
CEO, EOS Defence Systems (Australia)
General Manager Land C4I, EOS Defence Systems (Australia)
Director, Acteon Pty Ltd
Australian Industry Capability Manger, Land 400 Team Sentinel
Staff Officer,
Australian Defence Force
Director – Counter Improvised Explosive Devices, JTF 633, Middle East
Director – Counter Measures Development, Counter Improvised Explosives Devices Task Force
Plans Officer 3 Corps (US) Baghdad, Iraq
Masters of Management Defence Studies, UC
blind, dazzle and ultimately defeat drone threats. This has been developed by EOS Defence Systems in close col- laboration with our laser team, which is based in Space Systems but has been doing space debris tracking and imag- ing for some time.
ADM: How do you think about the geostrategic and business environ- ment in which you operate?
EOS comes at this question from the point of view that we've grown and de- veloped off the back of exports around the world, and that more than 90 per cent of our business has been conducted overseas. There have only been limited sales to the Australian market, at least up until the last couple of years.
Our international export success has now raised our profile with Aus- tralian customers, and we’re increas- ingly looking to provide technology and solutions to the ADF in a range of different areas; but most of our in-