Australian Defence Magazine Podcast

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We open the episode with Kirra's comments on the Hunter Defence Conference that she attended, including reference to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries being present, which leads to a discussion on Mogami, MHI's capabilities, and observations...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Phil Guy, Managing Director of Alkath and Darrel Madden Manager for Testing and Training at Mellori Solutions QLD, regarding updates in the world of electronic warfare over the past year. We begin our discussion by getting an overview of Darrel’s career and time in the army, then review the major lessons learned from Ukraine and the Middle East, particula...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Nigel Pittaway review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. The big news item that has captured a lot of attention has been the announcement that Japan's upgraded Mogami-class frigate has been selected for Project Sea 3000. We discuss the "already in the water" concept, interope...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Steve Visscher talk with Christian Gutierrez, Vice President Hive Mind Solutions, and Mark Palmer, Vice President of Vision Systems, at Shield AI. The discussion covers Shield AI's presence in Australia and the work they are performing here that is in use around the world. We start our discussion by getting an overview of Christian and Mark’s roles with Shield A...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Mark Schneider, UBH Group’s Chief Nuclear Officer, about aligning the Defence industry with the AUKUS supply chain apparatus. We kick off our discussion by getting an overview of Mark’s career and UBH’s history starting in 2020 providing IT and security services, and we review the role that the Naval Nuclear Power Safety Act of 2024 plays in regulating De...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We kick off with the news that the government has announced a first block of contracts worth about $19 million under the Land 156 program. A number of companies are included, such as Droneshied which received about one thi...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Joshua Stewart, a director at Luminact, about changes and challenges with Defence's engagement with industry, the Global Supply Chain Program, and exporting beyond the Australian market. We begin our discussion with a summary of Josh's career to date, and review Luminact’s project services throughout Defence and beyond. We get an insight into how Defence...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with the news that the first Black Hawks have moved to South East Queensland and that the Romeo fleet has reached 50,000 total flying hours. This leads into a discussion on the changing world of combat helicopters...

In this episode, Grant McHerron catches up with Christian Gutierrez, Vice President of Hivemind Engineering at Shield AI, while they were both at Avalon, to discuss the company's presence at the show. We start with a quick review of Christian's career plus the history and overview of Shield AI, before we talk about their Hivemind modular framework for autonomous systems and its use on drones and t...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron and Ewen Levick review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start off with the big topic of the USA bombing Iran with the deception of B-2s going West, Israel's air superiority reducing the assets required, and the first combat use of the GBU-57 Massive Ordinance Penetrators. While this will...

In this episode, we include the audio from ADM's inaugural Women in Defence Network breakfast in Melbourne held on 3rd June 2025. This was the first in a national series spotlighting leadership, innovation, and inclusion in the defence sector. Kylie Leonard, founder of the Network, opened the morning and welcomed attendees to the new national initiative. She then introduces Gwen Cohen, Director of...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Geoff Camp, JLL's Defence Lead for Australia, about the changing shape of Defence and industry in estate operations. We get an overview of JLL’s role as a real estate firm and beyond, particularly their involvement with the ADF, as well as the career that led Geoff to his current role and his history in Defence. The discussion gives us an insight into how...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with Grant's recent trip to Germany as a guest of TKMS where he and three journalists from Australia toured ship yards, a steel fabrication plant and a German Navy frigate. Much was learned despite the rather extr...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Maureen Taylor, the National Manager for Corporate Health at Healthcare Australia (HCA) and Dr Michael Bonning, Defence Medical Advisor at HCA, The topic is regarding Defence’s transition to a patient-centric care approach rather than one that is cost control based, which is part of Defence’s improvements for the health and wellbeing of ADF members. We be...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Mike Kerrigan, Head of Defence, Australia, with Palantir Technologies, about assessing Force Readiness with Palantir's Vantage system. We start our discussion by getting a brief history of Palantir’s formation, Mark’s background in the Army and his current role with Palantir. Mike gives us an overview of force readiness and its role in ensuring a military...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Dean Rosenfeld, CEO of Nova Systems, and Tim Grabert, Nova's Test & Evaluation Capability Lead, about Test & Evaluation (T&E) with the Australian Defence Force. We start with an overview on the how the industry is aligning with recent strategies, priorities and reviews. We then discuss the need for a sustainable T&E workforce, increased gr...

In this latest episode with content from Avalon 2025, Steve Visscher steps out from the edit suite to fly on Honeywell Aerospace's Boeing 757 test bed then afterwards caught up with Tim Roberts, Director of Connected Defense Solutions at Honeywell Aerospace. Meanwhile, Grant McHerron discussed the learnings from ten years of Jericho with GPCAPT Jessie Laroche, the Director of Jericho Disruptive In...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start by looking at Lockheed Martin's recent press release stating that Australia is the first international F-35 customer to connect our simulators via the Distributed Mission Training network, but it's not clear wh...

In the next of our Avalon 2025 episodes, Grant McHerron talks initially with Mat Jones, Head of Future Business at BAE Systems, and then with Ed Kearny, Business Development Manager, Leidos. Mat walks us around the BAE Systems stand which featured a large collection of products from their global operation and partners. We start with the MBDA's Meteor, an alternative to products from the USA which...

In the next of our Avalon 2025 episodes, Grant McHerron talks initially with Cliff Kyle, General Manager of Sikorsky Australia, and then he catches up with Rod Drury, Vice President International with Lockheed Martin Space. Cliff steps us through his career with Navy and then industry, before discussing Sikorsky Australia's work to sustain the current MH-60R Romeo fleet of 23 along with the 13 new...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. We start with an update on the common themes running through the Northern Australia Defence Summit that was recently held in Darwin then move on to discuss the AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge that has good goals but...

In the first of our Avalon 2025 episodes, Grant McHerron talks initially with Oyvind Kolset, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace’s Executive Vice President of their Missiles division, after which he also catches up once again with John Fry, Managing Director of Kongsberg Defence Australia. Oyvind discusses the state of their operation in the United States and gives his views on the changes that are...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Nigel Pittaway review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred recently in the world of Defence. Having recovered from Avalon, we start our discussion by looking at the UK's Global Air Combat Program (GCAP) and Future Combat Air System (FCAS), Australia's interest in the program, 6th Gen in general, and the USA's r...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton are joined by Julian Kerr and our producer, Steve Visscher. It's the end of the trade days and there has been plenty of Counter UAS information thanks to Land 156, and the news that Boeing are planning to conduct the launch of a missile from Ghost Bat. We also had a flight on the Honeywell 757 demonstrator whic...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton are joined by Julian Kerr to review their experiences from Day 2 of the Avalon Airshow. We note that there are more people here today, especially now that the budget has been released, then give quick summaries of our experiences today. From there, we discuss the information that was mentioned, almost in passin...