Australian Defence Magazine Podcast

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton review their experiences from Day 1 of the Avalon Airshow. There's been a flood of releases and a number of briefings during the day, plus a few items that were released yesterday, including the big news about Boeing being selected for the F-47 Next Gen Air Dominance aircraft. We've received a number of updates...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Ben Felton review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred in the world of Defence over the past two weeks. We start with the news that Canada's PM has announced that they've shortlisted BAE Systems' Jindalee Over the horizon Radar Network (JORN) technology. It's not yet a done deal but it's on the short list and t...

In this episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton join with Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge (aka The Grumpy Strategists) to discuss recent developments, both local and global, and the need for Australia to quickly adapt to the new geopolitical environment. We start with Sea 3000 and the statements at Senate Estimates, the unknowns about pricing a build at Henderson...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton review and discuss the highlights from the ADM Congress, AUKUS Pillar 2 Conference and Space Summit that were held on the same day this week in the same venue. You could tell that it's an election year as both Pat Conroy (minister for Defence Industry) and Andrew Hastie (shadow Defence minister) were both on-site and h...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with the Reverend Doctor Nikki Coleman about ethics and the militarisation of space. The discussion starts off with getting a background of Dr Coleman’s previous roles and experience as a chaplain, congregation minister and professor, as well as how their work calling out ADF’s problems surrounding sexual harassment, assault, and bullying resulted in winning t...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred in the world of Defence over the past two weeks. We start with the news that the first Arafura class Offshore Patrol Vessel has been accepted by Defence for sea trials, three years after it was launched in December 2021 and following Contrac...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Sarah Baker, Partner for Program Design & Delivery, and Sheena Ireland, Executive Director for Program Design & Delivery, from Synergy Group about the role of women in leadership in delivering Defence capability. We start the discussion by getting an overview of the importance that diversity in leadership roles holds for Defence, along with ways i...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton review and discuss some of the recent news of interest that's occurred in the world of Defence since early December. We start off noting that the government has shifted into election mode with plenty of announcements with almost every quote in the announcement stating that the "Albanese government" has done something, as op...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton review and discuss some of the recent news of interest published on the ADM site. We start off looking at the recent agreement for RAAF KC-30As to refuel Indian P-8Is at any time, not just in exercises, and how this will likely expand to cover their other aircraft. We also touch on India's unique position of dealing with We...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ben Felton talk with David Wiseman, Vice President for Secure Communications at BlackBerry, about ensuring mobile communications can remain secure. We start the discussion by getting an overview of David’s talk ‘Spying on mobile’ at the Military Communications and Information Systems (MilCIS) Conference, which highlights the need for sovereign communication syst...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton review and discuss some of the recent news of interest published on the ADM site. We open the discussion by looking at the big news from Defence that JP9102 for a Geostationary communications satellite capability is no longer going ahead as originally intended (aka it's pretty much been cancelled). It's not surprising given...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ben Felton talk with Giles Evans who is the Director of Nuclear Consulting at ADCG and Co-Founding CTO of Australian Nuclear Power. We discuss the steps that need to be taken for Australia to acquire nuclear capable submarines. We start by getting an overview of Giles’ extensive naval career, then move into discussions surrounding the likelihood of whether the U...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Ben Felton review and discuss some of the recent news of interest published on the ADM site. We start with a discussion about the big announcement of the Henderson consolidation which was reported as involving billions but actually only committed a relatively small amount for breakwater extensions and a three year study. This leads us to...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Pieter Penhall, Defence Systems Engineering Specialist, and Sam Mancarella, Systems Engineering Director, from MEMKO about their Non-Intrusive Flight Test Instrumentation (NIFTI) system. We start the discussion by getting an overview of how MEMKO was founded, the engineering and digital aerospace ecosystems they primarily operate in, as well as the scope...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ben Felton talk with Dr Matthew Ilich, National Solutions Specialist for Defence at Vocus, about Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communications as a tool for diplomacy and humanitarian aid. We kick off the discussion by getting a background of Mathew’s path into communications and his experiences in the Army. We review the evolution of LEO SatComs technology and their...

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton review and discuss some of the recent news of interest published on the ADM site. We start by discussing the United States approving another 100 AGM-88G AARGM-ER missiles for sale to Australia, noting that it's in addition to the 63 approved last year and that exact numbers being purchased are unknown as these allow "up to"...

In this episode, we present the last of the interviews we recorded at Land Forces 2024. John Fry, Managing Director of Kongsberg Defence Australia: John updates us on the delivery of Kongsberg Defence Australia's components of the NASAMS Air Defence system to Army, the StrikeMaster launcher for the Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defence System that employs the Thales Bushmaster flatbed utility vehic...

In this episode, we present four of the interviews we recorded at Land Forces 2024. The first is with Cathy O'Carroll, Campaign Director, and Graeme Bick, Chief Solution Architect, Global Test and Evaluation Campaign from QinetiQ: We discuss QinetiQ's background in both Australia and the UK, then get an insight into the lifecycle of developing, testing, and maintaining weapon systems, including Au...

In this episode, we present two of the interviews we recorded at Land Forces 2024. The first interview is with Phil Guy, Executive Director, and David Devine, GM, at Mellori Solutions: They give us an update on Mellori’s work over the last year and their views on the increased pace of innovation seen in the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts. We also discuss current electronic warfare technologies,...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ben Felton talk with Ron Parrello, the founder of Blue Opal Advisory, about Minimum Viable Logistics (MVL) as an enabler for the ADF’s Minimum Viable Capability (MVC) approach. We start the discussion by getting an overview of how MVC is utilised to adapt existing technologies to reduce the need to develop new elements and how the current systems in use constrai...

In this episode, Grant McHerron chats with Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway, Julian Kerr and Ben Felton about their experiences and observations on the final day of the Land Forces 2024 event. We kick off with the observation that the theme of the show has been Australian industry's involvement in supply chains with many announcements about contributions to programs both local and international. We als...

In this episode, Grant McHerron chats with Ewen Levick, Ben Felton, Julian Kerr, and Michael Flanagan about their experiences and observations on day two of the Land Forces 2024 event. We start with Julian giving us his views on the event before heading off to yet another interview, Next up is Lockheed Martin Australia's contract with Morand to assess local suppliers' ability to source raw materia...

In this episode, Grant McHerron chats with Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Ben Felton about their experiences and observations on day one of the Land Forces 2024 event. We start the discussion with views on BAE Systems' unveiling of their Atlas Collaborative Combat Variant (CCV), an 8x8 autonomous armoured vehicle. We then move on to the manufacture of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS)...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ben Felton talk with Samir Mehta, President of the Communication Systems segment for L3Harris Technologies, about L3Harris’ support for Australia and resilient communications. We begin the discussion by getting an overview of L3Harris broad range of support services, its long standing presence in Australia, and detailed insights into the Regional Support Centre...

In this episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick and Ben Felton talk with Lena Parker, General Manager Energy Solutions at Ventia, about energy security and its importance for national security. We start off the discussion by getting an overview of why energy and national security are intertwined, with a focus on moving away from coal to renewables, the responsibilities that Defence has in ensuring th...