Australian Defence Magazine Podcast

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with the current military operations over Iran and the Middle East, which Ewen notes can be traced from the 2020 assassination of Iran's General Qasem Soleimani through Hamas' attack on October 7th, 2023,...

In this episode we present audio from the Women in Defence Network's breakfast session held at Indo-Pacific 2025 that was hosted by AtkinsRéalis and supported by Women in Nuclear Australia and Women’s Defence Connection. The session explored the theme of 125 years of the Royal Australian Navy: legacy, leadership, and a nuclear-propelled future. Beth Fitzpatrick, AtkinsRéalis' Defence Consulting Le...

Grant McHerron and Nigel Pittaway discuss their views on day three of the Singapore Airshow 2026, the final trade day and their last day attending the show. They discuss some of the highlights of the flying display and also note that the day had many briefings, general discussions and one-on-one sessions with senior vendor staff. Airbus provided briefings on their H-160 helicopter and also on thei...

Grant McHerron and Nigel Pittaway discuss their views on day two of the Singapore Airshow 2026 where the crowds are even bigger, potentially the most crowded Nigel's ever seen it and this is the 10th one he's attended. Grant's caught up with Ondas about their ground and low-altitude defence system of systems, plus had a tour of Embraer's KC-390 after an update with their Defence team. Airbus Defen...

Grant McHerron and Nigel Pittaway discuss their views on day one of the Singapore Airshow 2026 where vendors have been saying they've been kept very busy and are trying to make space in their schedules for all the meetings. There's also been announcements including Lockheed Martin stating that RAAF F-35s achieved FOC in December and Embraer announcing that the KC-390 tanker/transport has been sele...

This episode collects a number of interviews recorded at the Indo Pacific 2025 event held in Sydney at the start of November. We start by speaking to Dr Shane Arnott, Chief Engineer at Anduril Industries, about the success of their Ghost Shark unmanned submarine program which has a $170 million contract with the RAN. We also discuss the strategic shift towards unmanned systems for naval operations...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with the government's announcement that they will be restructuring the Defence acquisition organisation with Capability Managers moving under VCDF while CASG, GWEO & NSSG get moved into a new Agency t...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Nick Ross, Head of Defence for Pexip, about their secure video collaboration software platform. We begin our discussion by exploring Pexip’s background specializing in video collaboration software for interoperability and security and its mission to provide communication tools irrespective of technology or security level. The conversation then delves into...

This episode collects a number of interviews recorded at the Indo Pacific 2025 event held in Sydney at the start of November. Starting with Grant McHerron and Max Blenkin talking with Marcus Hellyer, Strategic Advisor at C2 Robotics, to explore the company's guiding philosophy of generating mass affordably using autonomous systems. We delve into C2 Robotics' heritage in electro-optical sensors and...

This episode collects a number of interviews recorded at the Indo Pacific 2025 event held in Sydney at the start of November. Starting with William Egan, Senior Vice President - Sales & Marketing at Teledyne Marine, covering the company's water gliders, which are designed for long duration deep ocean travel, as per their Sentinel Mission circumnavigating the world. We then assess their modular...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with a look back at Indo-Pacific 2025 event to discuss what stood out for us now that we've had some time to recover and return to regular tasks. From there we move on to discuss the recent news about Dro...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Andrew Chapman, Director - Aerospace, and Christopher "Planko" Plain, Business Development & Strategy Manager, at BAE Systems Australia about sustaining the RAAF's F-35 and Hawk aircraft along with supplying Aviation Technical Training in Wagga Wagga. We begin our discussion by reviewing BAE System’s current expansion of facilities to support the F-35...

In this episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey provide their overview of the themes they've observed across the IndoPac 2025 event. There have been many noteworthy announcements but we do acknowledge the implications of the combat system partnership between BAE Systems, Raytheon Australia, General Dynamics Mission Systems and Thales. There's also the local manufacture...

In this episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway, Kirra Davey and Julian Kerr provide their overview of the IndoPac 2025 Day 2 event, where the number of people attending certainly seemed to be much higher than on Day 1, making it even trickier to get around the displays. There were plenty of announcements across the day but the big news was that BAE Systems, Raytheon Australia, Genera...

In this episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey provide their overview of the IndoPac 2025 Day 1 event, with Associate Producer Kylie Leonard joining us as well. There's been plenty of news, lots of good conversations, and many steps logged here at Day One of IndoPac 2025 but no major or exciting announcements. There's been good news for PMB Defence along with Ocius, p...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Mark Nunn, Strategic Projects Development Lead at Vocus, and Dr Matthew Ilic, National Solutions Specialist – Defence at Vocus, regarding how telecommunications underpins humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, as well as stability operations across the Indo-Pacific. We begin our discussion by reviewing Mark and Matthew’s experiences tackling communi...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Steve Roughsedge, Toll Group’s Senior Vice President of Theatre Supply Chain at Toll Group, about the Defence Theatre Logistics contract they’ve been awarded by the ADF. We begin our discussion by getting an overview of Toll Group as a logistics provider, Steve’s career to date, how Toll Group is involved with the Defence Theatre Logistics Contract, and t...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We open the episode by discussing the recent news from the meeting between Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese where AUKUS was not cancelled but the focus seemed to be on the critical minerals deal and the significant investment...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with a review of the International Astronomical Congress that Kirra attended during the week, including Australia signing agreements with the USA and seeking to get more engagement with the European Space...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with two people from KBR's Australia Defence and Security Solutions group: Christine Gillon, Director of People and Culture, and Ben Kelly, Senior Director of Sustainment and Integration. We discuss KBR’s growth in Australia and their role providing Defence with sustainment and engineering solutions. We begin our discussion by getting an overview of Christine...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with James Heading, the Director and General Manager for Missiles and Fire Control at Lockheed Martin Australia, and Wayne Harrison who is responsible for International Business Development at the Missiles and Fire Control team at Lockheed Martin, We'll be talking about the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) and HIMARS. We begin our conversation by getting a back...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Kirra Davey talk with Sophee Clark, Babcock International Group's Australian Production Manager for Marine projects, about her experiences as a 30 Under 30 Award winner and working at Babcock. We begin our conversation by getting an overview of the ADM 30 Under 30 award program, the challenges of recruitment for defence, and the available careers from Babcock. W...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Air Commodore James Badgery, Director General of the Defence Aviation Safety Authority, about DASA and their engagement with the Australian Space Agency, and space in general. We begin our discussion by getting a general overview of James’ career, how DASA operates, and how Defence has adopted European military regulation structures whilst also working wi...

Grant McHerron talks with David Goodrich OAM, Executive Chairman and CEO of Anduril Australia, about the big news from Wednesday morning regarding Anduril being awarded $1.7bn for the Ghost Shark Program of Record. We start with an overview of the contract, then move on to Ghost Shark's pedigree from the Dive LD and Dive XL AUVs, and how much Australian content there is in Ghost Shark. David talks...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with a look at Land 156 with plenty of releases lately, including the announcement that the EOS Slinger cannon will be included and that Leidos has been selected as the system integrator. There's also been news of expand...