New Laboratory boosts defence research

Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, congratulated Lockheed Martin on the first anniversary of operations of the Science, Technology, Engineering Leadership, Research Laboratory (STELaRLab), celebrated today in Melbourne, signifying their commitment to Australian innovation.

Minister Pyne said STELaRLab is the first research and development (R&D) facility established by Lockheed Martin outside of the United States, and will be the company’s national R&D operations centre in Australia.

“Lockheed Martin selected Australia because of our significant capabilities in research and development,” Minister Pyne said.

“Choosing a Defence scientist to head the STELaRLab is also a credit to Australia’s international scientific leadership. The fact that Lockheed Martin chose one of our Defence scientists from DST Group, Dr Tony Lindsay, to head the STELaRLab is a credit to Australia’s international scientific leadership.

“Defence has a long-standing relationship with Lockheed Martin and in that time the company has demonstrated a high level of commitment to work with Defence on building new capability.

“STELaRLab has been exploring autonomy, robotics, and command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), and is also partnering with universities to support PhD projects under the Australian Post Graduate award program.”

Minister Pyne said the STELaRLab is a valued addition to Australia’s R&D capability and Defence welcomes opportunities for joint research with the laboratory.

“I wish the laboratory success in its research endeavours for Defence and look forward to its future contributions to the Defence Innovation System,” he said.

The Defence Innovation System consists of the Defence Innovation Hub and the Next Generation Technologies Fun as the two core initiatives outlined in the Government’s Defence Industry Policy Statement. These two signature innovation research and development programs, together with the Centre for Defence Industry Capability, deliver on the Government‘s $1.6 billion commitment to grow Australia's defence industry and innovation sector.

For more information on Defence’s initiatives in innovation visit: www.business.gov.au/cdic.