Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are being encouraged to harness their future defence opportunities in NSW, with the launch of Adroita’s Partnering for Success white paper today at LAND FORCES 2021, the International Land Defence Exposition in Brisbane.
Veteran-owned defence and engineering consultancy, Adroita, is one of twenty-four NSW companies showcasing their products and services at the NSW stand. The launch of their Partnering for Success paper reinforces the need for companies to embrace change, leverage global markets and secure Defence opportunities for growth in NSW.
Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, said the expo was an excellent opportunity for SMEs to connect with Government and senior partners in the defence industry.
“We want to bring together the Australian Defence Primes, SMEs and researchers to grow and strengthen our defence industry at every level and in doing so generate jobs for NSW,” Mr Ayres said.
Partnering for Success outlines the need for businesses to secure opportunities in Defence’s priority areas, such as shipbuilding, radar capability, information warfare, surveillance and intelligence, small arms, aerospace maintenance and complex systems integration.
Adroita CEO Sarah Pavillard said their core purpose was engineering success for sovereign capability.
“SMEs are the engine room of the Australian and the NSW economy, and there is much latent potential sitting in industry right now that is applicable to Defence – it just needs to be unlocked, and that can only occur through the right partnerships.”
Mr Ayres said the Government, through Investment NSW, was also providing $1 million to the Defence Innovation Network to seed collaborative projects between Defence Innovation Network universities and NSW SMEs that will lead to greater commercialisation.
LAND FORCES 2021 co-exhibitor DroneShield has previously received seed funding that supported their development of optical drone detection using deep learning and convolutional neural networks with the University of Technology Sydney.
DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said the project used recent improvements in computer vision, image processing and deep learning to develop an artificial intelligence based real-time optical drone detection system.
“The developed technology has been integrated into DroneShield’s counter-drone solutions and deployed at several high-profile customer sites around the world to detect, identify and track drones up to several kilometres away with the optical/thermal sensors.”
Further details about Investment NSW are available at www.investment.nsw.gov.au, and for Defence NSW at www.defence.nsw.gov.au.
