Page 41 - Williams Foundation Integrated Force Design Seminar

Designing the Integrated Force: How to Define and Meet the Challenge?

I would suggest that time line needs to be radically truncated.

The Chief of Army made the point at the Airpower Conference that in many ways we are still using procedures
and approaches that go back to World War II for air-ground operations; this makes no sense in terms of
technological advances and operational shifts.

We need to shape a 21st century approach.

It is also no longer just about air-land integration; it is about multi-domain integration at the small group level.

During our April 2017 discussion, BG Mills highlighted the evolving approach to defense modernization for
the ADF. With the new Defence White Paper, a new organization was created namely, the Defence
Innovation Hub.

According to an MoD White paper released on December 2016:

On 25 February 2016 the Government released the 2016 Defence Industry Policy Statement (Industry Policy
Statement). The Industry Policy Statement, together with the 2016 Defence White Paper and the 2016 Integrated
Investment Program, set out the Government's strategy to enhance Australia's defence capability including through
collaboration with defence industry and other science and technology research partners.

A key element of the Industry Policy Statement is the establishment of the Defence Innovation Hub (Innovation
Hub) for the Department of Defence (Defence). The Innovation Hub will rationalise and simplify the existing
Defence innovation programs into a streamlined program that nurtures and matures proposals through a single
innovation pipeline.

Critical to the success of the Innovation Hub will be a supporting policy framework to transform the way that
Defence approaches innovation and collaborates with industry and other research organisations.

The Innovation Hub is connected as well with the Defense Science and Technology Group’s Next Generation
Technologies Fund.

“The Defense Innovation Hub, which works under Kate Louis which was announced in December of last year,
has a significant amount of funds to support innovation initiatives, and it's also linked to the Defense Science
and Technology Group's Next Generation Technology Fund.

Working with DSTG and the Innovation Hub provides the Australian Army with opportunity to solicit good
ideas from industry, and then look at working with the respective companies at shaping innovative
technologies to the point where they can eventually affect major capital acquisition projects.”
BG Mills then went on to describe some examples of innovation over the past three years, which illustrate how
Army wants to shape its modernization approach.

The first example was the development and acquisition of a micro-UAV, a product that he highlighted during
a presentation at the Williams Foundation last year.

“It started with an Army Innovation Day in which we put the challenge to industry of providing a small UAV
which could be used by small army units. A number of companies trialed their capabilities and we then picked
one – the Black Hornet – for further trials. We established a trial in one of our brigades and within Special
Forces. It was deployed to Iraq for a short period of time. We like it. Patrol reports were very favorable.
We are now looking to enter into a contract with a company to procure enough Nano-UAVs to equip every
one of our platoons and vehicle troops with its own Nano-UAV.”

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