Defence partners with industry to develop innovative capability for Army

The Australian Army has partnered with the Defence Innovation Hub to award three innovation contracts to Australian industry.

Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, today announced Defence has executed three Defence Innovation Hub contracts, with a combined value of $2.2 million.

Minister Pyne said it is encouraging to see the Defence Innovation Hub, the Australian Army and local industry partners working together to develop innovative solutions to enhance Defence capability.

“These contracts support the development of innovative solutions to challenges of novel weapons and novel effects in a combined arms team in a joint environment”, Minister Pyne said.

These contracts were selected as part of Army Innovation Day 2017, utilising the new Special Notice platform managed by the Defence Innovation Hub. Special Notices allows capability managers to call for industry and research organisations to submit proposals in response to specific capability challenges.

Victoria based company Defendtex Pty Ltd was awarded two of the three Defence Innovation Hub contracts.

The first contract awarded to Defendtex Pty Ltd, valued at $1.04 million, is to explore the development of a light weight, modular shotgun system. If successful, this technology could deliver a considerable capability improvement in shotgun capability.

The second contract awarded to the company, valued at $957,000, will explore the development of a low profile body armour for potential use in combat operations.

The Defence Innovation Hub also awarded a contract to Thales Australia, valued at $227,000, to explore development of an innovative optics system for use with the current in service Enhanced F88 rifle to provide enhanced targeting capability and shooter accuracy on operations.

Special Notices will be advertised on the Defence Innovation Portal as they arise. For more information, please visit www.business.gov.au/cdic.