Australian Defence Magazine Podcast

This episode has been assembled using audio from some of the presentations at ADM's Space Summit held in November 2021. Given the length of the episode and the variety of presenters, we have provided time points showing where each person's audio commences. 0:01:05 Chris Hewett, General Manager for Strategy & Industry Growth at the Australian Space Agency, on developing the Australian Space Ind...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ewen Levick talk with Nova Group's Jim McDowell, Group Chief Executive Officer and Bec Humble, Group Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs, about how they see 2022 developing for defence industry and Nova Group. We start the episode with a discussion on the geopolitical changes in our regional environment with tensions between the USA and China, a worsening threa...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Stewart Wilson, aviation historian and author, about the history of military air power in Australia. The content of this episode supplements Stewart's article on the RAAF's history in the November issue of Australian Defence Magazine. We start the episode with a review of Stewart's publishing history, including his "In Australian Service" series of books...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ewen Levick talk with Millie Keating, Industrial Development Unit Manager at Hanwha Defense Australia, about the Australian Industry Capability associated with the Huntsman and Redback projects. We start the episode with a quick review of Millie's career to date and her work at Hanwha, which moves into an overview of Hanwha's approach to AIC, their strategy for...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ewen Levick talk with Alan Clements, managing director of L3Harris' Australian operations about integrated communications, autonomous vehicles and the new Peregrine platform. We start the episode talking about the importance of integrated communications networks that support a multi-level Defence environment, L3Harris' work in that area and the opportunities bei...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ewen Levick talk with Robert Inches, CEO of PFG Group, and Rear Admiral (ret) Steven Gilmore, Defence Advocate within the Tasmanian state government, about PFG's work with High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), their watercraft and their recent contract with the Royal New Zealand Navy. We start the episode with a review of PFG's history, their products and the Sentin...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ewen Levick talk with Alan Rankins and Bret Barton from Goal Group, Australia's largest collaboration of SME organisations. The discussion starts with Alan & Bret talking about their Defence and industry careers and how their experiences lead to the formation of Goal Group, a veteran owned company with the view of "many minds, one goal." This leads to a revi...

In this episode, Grant McHerron talks with Andrei Komar, a research fellow at the Australian National University's Research School of Physics, about a revolutionary new technology that could dramatically improve low light vision systems. The discussion opens with a review of Andrei's career to date and his current role at ANU. We also review the difference between image intensifiers and near infra...

In this episode, we present the Sovereign Defence Industry Breakfast Panel from the Land Forces event held in Brisbane on Wednesday 3rd of June. Moderated by Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of Australian Defence Magazine, the panel featured Rob Nioa, Managing Director & Founder of Nioa, Jon Hawkins, CEO of Omni Executive and Jim McDowell, CEO of Nova Systems. The discussion started with the...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Ewen Levick, Associate Editor for ADM, talk with Mark Stevens from Arican on the growing involvement of private equity in Defence industry. We start with Mark summarising his career from uniform into Defence industry and on to establishing Arican. This leads into a discussion on the increased activity in the Defence industry, the opportunities and challenges of...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, talk with Derek Osborn, Group Executive Defence and Social Infrastructure for Ventia. We start by discussing Ventia's use of big data in logistics and maintenance operations while meeting Defence security's requirements. This leads into bringing lessons learned from non-Defence clients on to Defence projects, such as th...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, talk with Dan McQuestin, Business Development Director for Bell responsible for Australia, NZ & PNG. Our discussion includes a history of Bell's products in Australia and, specifically, with Army Aviation who have operated Bell products for all but the last two years since its inception 50 years ago. Dan also review...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, talk with Associate Professor Greg Cohen, Program Lead for the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems at Western Sydney University and GPCAPT Lyle Holt, Director - Plan Jericho for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). We start the episode by discussing neuromorphic imaging and its applications in the field of a...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, talk with MAJGEN (ret) Liz Cosson, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs and 2019 inductee to the ADM Women in Defence Awards Hall of Fame. We discuss Liz's career in Army, her work at DVA and her advice for the next group of leaders. In 1979, Liz along with 32 other women attended the Women's Royal Army...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, talk with Shireane McKinnie, the inaugural ADM Women in Defence Awards Hall of Fame inductee. Shireane discusses her career in engineering and Defence, from her studies at university and first engineering roles through to her experiences with the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO). Originally intended to be a short ter...

In this Episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, are joined by Jack Koons & Ashwin Pal from Unisys to discuss cybersecurity. You can find biographical information for Jack and Ashwin at the links below: Jack: https://www.unisys.com/offerings/security-solutions/thought%20leader/jack-koons-id-4686 Ash: https://www.unisys.com/offerings/security-solutions/thought%20le...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, discuss the EVVA 4KS maximum security key system and the role of physical locks as part of a layered security system with Geoff Plummer from Davcor Group Pty Ltd. Geoff explains how the design of the patented 4KS keys ensures that their locks are less prone to environmental issues when compared to standard keys, making...

In this episode, Grant McHerron and Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, meet with Senator David Fawcett, Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence & Trade and John Blackburn, Chair of the Institute of Integrated Economic Research-Australia (IIER). They discuss areas of Australia's supply chains that have critical vulnerabilities to disruption, as th...

In this episode, Grant McHerron meets with Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, and Brent Clark, the CEO of the Australian Industry & Defence Network (AIDN). They discuss AIDN's history of state-level branches and its recently established AIDN National which provides a single voice for lobbying government on behalf of Defence SMEs. Brent explains the benefit of AIDN, the services it prov...

In this episode, Grant McHerron meets with Katherine Ziesing, Managing Editor of ADM, and Dr Marcus Hellyer & Dr Malcolm Davies from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) for a lively discussion on topics relating to government funding of Defence, the changing strategic environment and the impacts on both due to COVID-19. Commencing with Defence funding, Dr Hellyer reviews the gover...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Australian Defence Magazine podcast where Grant McHerron talks to Katherine Ziesing, the Managing Editor of ADM. We discuss ADM's history, it's coverage and audience, along with Kath's involvement with the magazine. We also cover the various events ADM organises and our goals for this podcast. For many of us, one of the primary events in our calendar is the...