Page 44 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

42 LAND FORCES
C4 EDGE
JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
of milestones and challenges that prove or disprove our capacity to solve those problems and do so in a way that brings industry in very early and builds some trust through co-investment.
“One of the other really positive aspects of C4 EDGE are the range of other collaborations between various in- dustry partners, a spinoff if you like. We’ve brought indus- try together, connected them for other endeavours as well. So I think it’s going well and I expect it will deliver what we expect, which is a proof of concept and then hopefully
LEFT: Working effectively with regional partners is a must.
ability for these systems to integrate into existing JP 2072 architectures.
“But, more importantly, the current ADF systems which are all ITAR controlled, can’t actually be integrated with lower coalition partners, so south Pacific countries, south- east Asian countries, even our first responders in Australia can’t integrate into our ITAR controlled networks,” Sand- erson explained to ADM. “They will be able to under this approach. This gives Australia control over those lower tactical networks so that Australia itself can develop net- works that are capable of coalition interaction with our south Pacific, southeast Asian and even Australian first responder capabilities, which they can’t do now.
“In the bushfires last year, the Australian Army was not able to lend radios to Australian first responders to plug into ADF networks because they were all ITAR controlled, and without the appropriate security clearances, we can’t share that technology.”
PLAYERS
Given the amount of companies involved in the C4 EDGE program, ADM spoke to a selection of them (here is alpha- betical order) to get an idea about what they each bring to the table and how the process is going for them so far.
3ME
Battery specialist 3ME is reaching out from its traditional business of batteries for large mining vehicles into the De- fence space. They do large format lithium polymer bat- teries that can be deployed into underground mines due to their proprietary battery technology that removes the threat of lithium battery fire.
There’s a big push to electrify as much equipment un- derground as possible and safe, powerful batteries are a big part of that, Chief Growth Officer Steve Lawn ex- plained to ADM.
“The crossover to Defence from our more recent focus on the mining industry makes sense. You’ve got these large, powerful batteries that are safe and rugged enough
“WHILE REPLICATING C4 EDGE IN OTHER PROGRAMS MAY NOT WORK EXACTLY, IT’S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE APPROACH WHICH IS TO COMMUNICATE REQUIREMENTS TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY.”
open up opportunity for industry to apply its capacity to our needs in an area that they haven’t had those opportunities previously,” MAJGEN Stuart concluded.
“It could be equally done for space, it could be equally done for maritime systems,” Sanderson en- thused. “Rather than CASG con- ducting RFIs to try and work out what Australian industry is capa- ble of or not capable of, investing some money in there well ahead of there being an acquisition require- ment that facilities Australian in-
dustry to demonstrate existing capability - is a really good model. It doesn’t cost a lot and you get a lot more return. It’s a significant de-risking, particularly given the govern- ment’s AIC policies because you’re not speculating. You’ll actually be able to have clear demonstrations of capability, so when you do your risk analysis you will have proper data on which to base it.”
SOVEREIGNTY, CAPABILITY AND INTEROPERABILITY
In terms of battlegroup and above there will still be a strong need for coalition interoperability between Austra- lia and the US and the gateways already in place. There’s nothing that C4 EDGE is doing that won’t facilitate the
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