Page 96 - Australian Defence Magazine Nov 2020

96 FROM THE SOURCE AMANDA HOLT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 94
ADM: How’s SYPAQ’s financial performance?
HOLT: We’re privately owned and will continue to be. We’re in a very healthy position which is really down to the commit- ment and hard work of many people over many years. I person- ally love the flexibility that you have in working in a privately- owned business. We can genuinely plan long-term and not need to be quite as responsive to market quarterly announcements.
ADM: As SYPAQ grows, how do you handle the Primes? HOLT: We’re quite fortunate where we sit at the moment. We’ve had some longstanding technology partnerships with a number of international primes, so that has given us the opportunity to participate in that space in our market while still being a smaller business. On top of that, now that we’re emerging into domains where we might directly compete with the primes, we’re seeing so many more collaborations in defence industry across the board.
One of the things that has served SYPAQ really well over the years is our philosophy of finding out what people do best and letting them do that, whether that’s an individual, a team, a sub-contractor, a partner or a customer.
If everyone identifies their unique value proposition, what they can best bring to the table, and are reasonably open and honest, the partnerships and what you’re able to deliver to your end customer are game-changing. But it isn’t easy and requires a sense of self-awareness and mostly importantly the discipline not to be greedy. That’s one of the areas we’ve seen significantly mature in our industry over the last few years.
It could just be that we’re small enough, the primes don’t see us as too much of a threat, and in the world of sov- ereign industrial capability and enhanced Australian in- dustry capability we’re a trusted and reliable partner. But so far we’re finding the market dynamics, and where we’re trying to take the business, means we have been very well
NOVEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
supported by defence, government and industry more broadly. So it’s a pretty exciting time for us.
ADM: You recently acquired Sydney company Bellinger Systems. Why?
HOLT: Essentially they’re tactical data link specialists. They’ve got an incredibly detailed understanding of the maritime C4I environment and how to introduce an emerg- ing technology, such as Link 22, or the modern HF capabil- ity, both of which are major programs we’re delivering at the moment, into what can be quite a complex distributed and legacy technology environment.
Coupling this with their C4I sustainment expertise, it’s a really complementary capability, with some quite unique and specialist experience and expertise within the team. Culturally the integration of the businesses could not have gone better.
ADM: SYPAQ has been appointed exclusive Australian and NZ agent for Kleos Space, a space-powered Radio Frequency reconnaissance data provider. Where is the interest? HOLT: What Kleos brings is quite exciting – it’s a surveil- lance capability that adds so much value to traditional space-based technologies, providing complementary situ- ational awareness, particularly to maritime ISR. We will be providing the integration necessary to realise the capability locally in our region.
We’ve had some great relationships with different parts of the intelligence world and in particular looking at some of the space-based ISR programs. The future maritime sur- veillance capability being progressed through the Depart- ment of Home Affairs is also an obvious area of interest.
ADM: What’s happening with the $3.5 million Defence Innovation contract awarded in 2019 to develop a UAS with potential future applications for the RAN?
LEFT: CORVO sensors have also been demonstrated in a maritime environment.
SYPAQ