Page 34 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

34 PASSIVE RADAR
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
industry primes such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin Austra- lia, Raytheon Australia and Saab Australia on various pro- grams across the three sectors.
SURVEILLANCE IN THE LAND DOMAIN
The tactical Maverick M-series is an example of how locally- developed technology can be brought to maturity through the Army Innovation Day (AID) and Defence Innovation Hub (DIH) processes and, while the Australian Army is seen as the prime customer, there are also significant export opportuni- ties on the horizon, particularly among the ‘Five Eyes’ nations.
and, as swarming technology matures; will become an ever- increasing threat into the future; as well as other airborne platforms and surface-based objects such as moving vehi- cles and maritime vessels.
Palmer says the system is comfortably deployable in one soldier’s backpack and can be set up and operating within minutes of arrival at the designated location. “We’re optimis- ing it for the ability to be easily deployed so, within minutes, two operators can go from set up to maintaining full situa- tional awareness,” he adds. “This has game-changing poten- tial for Defence, in the sense that deployed forces can now maintain comprehensive situational awareness, fully covert and with the advantage of a small form factor that is rapidly deployable, in terms of size, weight and power requirements.
“We think it really adds to the value proposition. It is able to be used across a wide variety of applications in the de- fence space and it creates a lot of opportunities for Defence to consider different applications and how they may choose to employ it in different contexts.”
In terms of maturity, Palmer says the Maverick M-series is capable of being deployed for the use-cases Army has put forward to date, but Silentium Defence will continue to fur- ther develop it to add additional features or functionality, in response to feedback received from the end users. “It’s one of those cases where, what does maturity mean?” Palmer asks. “It is certainly mature right now, but it’s something we will continue to invest in as well. We’re going to continue to
ABOVE: The Maverick S-series is one of a range of complementary capabilities being proposed under JP 9360.
Although the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pan- demic have somewhat hindered opportunities to market the Maverick range to other customers, Palmer sees several opportunities with international customers on the horizon. Maverick M-series was first pitched to Army at AID 2017 and has since progressed through two DIH con- tracts (Phases 2 and 3) to its recently announced contract with Army. “It is a natural extension to the work we have been doing through the DIH and we’ve had successful en- gagement with Army through the development process to
date, beginning with AID 2017,” Palmer says.
“The AID and DIH process has supported us through development and engagement of Maverick M-series and of course the Australian Army is a core customer, but we are also looking at the larger market segment, because we think
that this has global potential.”
Typical target sets may include the aforementioned SUAS
systems, which already pose a threat to deployed operations
“THIS HAS GAME- CHANGING POTENTIAL FOR DEFENCE”
SILENTIUM