Page 38 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

38 SPACE
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
ALL EYES TO THE SKY
EWEN LEVICK | MELBOURNE
Three years since the founding of the Australian Space Agency, the country is moving increasingly closer to truly sovereign space capabilities. This progress has been driven by industry – by companies that innovate and disrupt, forcing government to catch up.
TWO of those companies are Adelaide-based DEWC Systems, which specialises in electronic warfare, and launch pro- vider Gilmour Space Technologies, based in Queensland. The two companies recently signed a Memorandum of Un- derstanding that could herald a truly Australian tactically responsive space capability.
DEWC SYSTEMS
DEWC Systems is the first Australian company to launch a payload on a space-capable rocket from Australia. It is cre- ating an Australian space-based electronic warfare (EW) capability called MOESS that it hopes will provide a step- change in the ADF’s warfighting capacity.
“In broad terms, militaries are trying to be not seen whilst trying to identify where the adversary is,” CEO Ian Spencer said to ADM. “One of the things, for example, that will give adversaries away is their radars. The radar has to emit enough energy to hit the target and bounce all the way back to the receiver. But as energy goes through the atmo- sphere it attenuates and decreases, so radar emissions can be picked up twice as far as they can see.
“So it’s helpful to be able to passively detect and identify what those radars are – it allows us to understand what forces are in the area and what their intentions are.”
However, DEWC Systems is also cognisant of the need to avoid introducing another vulnerability into the ADF’s lines
GILMOUR SPACE TECHNOLOGIES