Page 37 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LAND FORCES C4 EDGE 35
C4 EDGE: COLLABORATION IN ACTION FOR ARMY
In order to get an idea of the art of the possible, Army has engaged with a consortium of Australian owned and run companies led by EOS to provide a proof of concept for the delivery of C4I products and technologies and capabilities in Australia.
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
THE approach started taking shape in 2019, with a collabo- ration deed signed in 2020 with 18 companies and another six associate companies also contributing, according to Grant Sanderson, CEO of EOS Defence Systems.
“Army wanted to understand exactly what Australian in- dustry was capable of and what they were prepared to do in order to meet future battle group and below Australian secret level systems development, and to deliver that in an accredited process,” Sanderson explained to ADM. “They asked at the MilCIS conference in 2019 if Australian in- dustry was interested in this and asked for submissions. EOS made a submission to Army, a proposal to Army to pull this industry consortium together and to deliver a demonstration of capability.”
Army took that offer up and in middle of 2020 and a contract for $4.5 million was signed to pull the team to- gether. This initial contract saw the completion of a de- tailed scoping study.
“This allowed Army to fully understand what technology was going to be demonstrated and in what construct, and to have some say over the nature of the demonstration and the architecture that would be demonstrated,” Sanderson said.
ABOVE: Sergeant Peter Byrnes, from the 8th/9th Battalion RAR receives his next checkpoint over the radio during the navigation serial of Exercise Ramsilience at Gallipoli Barracks, Brisbane.
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