Page 26 - Australian Defence Magazine May-June 2020

26 UAVS SKYGUARDIAN
MAY/JUNE 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
TEAM REAPER AUSTRALIA AND AIC OPPORTUNITIES
Since the original announcement of Team Reaper Australia’s formation back in February 2017, it has grown significantly and is now made up of 10 companies in addition to GA-ASI.
As of mid-March 2020, the team comprised Cobham (lead partner for overall long-term sustainment activities in Austra- lia); CAE (simulation systems and services); TAE Aerospace (TPE-331 engine support); Collins Aerospace (battlefield network solution); Quickstep (aircraft composite component
“Australian defence industries are world-class and are ex- tremely well-placed to be involved in projects like this.”
Warren Ludwig says GA-ASI is working with other po- tential suppliers and the company is in discussion with a number of Australian universities about collaboration on the program.
“We’re talking to a number of Australian companies and we are seeking licences for those we think will contribute,” he said. “But each of those companies has to win that work for this aircraft. Some will be restricted tenders, open to a couple of different providers around the world, and we need Australian industry to come in and win that work as well.”
Ludwig adds that GA-ASI is meeting with Defence’s Industry Policy Division on a quarterly basis to keep them informed of progress but, because MQ-9B acquisi- tion will essentially be a military off the shelf (MOTS) process, airframes will arrive from the US in boxes and assembled locally – a process measured in hours rather than days for each.
“Our intent is certainly to establish an enduring AIC (and) one of our key focuses is the automation of everything from planning, flying and data Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED), so Artificial Intelligence (AI) exper- tise is very important to us,” Ludwig said to ADM. “Most of our discussions with Australian universities are focussed on that PED side and we envisage entering into an arrange- ment by the end of this year.”
GSC OPPORTUNITIES
GA-ASI is also looking at opportunities for local companies to participate in its global supply chain and Ludwig says the
“TEAM REAPER AUSTRALIA IS LOOKING FORWARD TO A GATE 2 DECISION IN EARLY 2022 AND GA-ASI IS WORKING TO IDENTIFY OTHER AUSTRALIAN CAPABILITIES, ACROSS INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA THAT COULD CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROGRAM.”
manufacture and sup- port); Raytheon Aus- tralia (Electro-Optics system and support and long-term test and inte- gration support); Ultra Electronics (electronic warfare payload); Sen- tient Vision (ViDAR payload); Airspeed (pay- load pod and composite component manufacture and support); and Flight
Data Systems (Crash Data Recorder and support).
When the MQ-9B was down selected as the preferred Reaper variant for Air 7003, Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price was upbeat about Australian Industry Capa-
bilities (AIC) as the project moved ahead.
“Local companies that provide a range of innovative sen-
sor, communication, manufacturing and life-cycle support capabilities will have the opportunity to showcase their ca- pabilities throughout this development process,” she said.