Boeing Defence Australia (BDA) has announced new industry partners – Leidos Australia, Viasat and Indigenous Defence and Infrastructure Consortium (iDiC) – will join Saber and ClearBox in the Boeing JP9102 industry team. Broadly acknowledged to be a highly complex defence program, JP9102 aims to deliver a sovereign system which will enable the joint command and control of deployed Joint Task Forces through resilient and responsive communications beyond the range and capacity of other communication systems.
Boeing has sought industry partners who can contribute to a uniquely Australian solution that will help build in-country space capability and meet the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) needs for flexibility, resilience and agility. “Boeing is committed to providing a modern sovereign solution to the ADF with high confidence on schedule and cost,” said BDA emerging markets director, Matt Buckle. “To deliver this, we are partnering with strong businesses who offer best-in-class capability here in country.”
As part of the industry team, Leidos will provide cyber, security and network integration services and software development environments and cyber test ranges for BDA’s solution to JP9102. “Leidos Australia is excited to collaborate with BDA to offer a resilient and effective solution for JP9102,” said Leidos Australia chief executive, Paul Chase. “As always, our local team of 1400 people are committed to helping the ADF deliver their mission.”
Viasat has participated in almost every important Australian military and commercial satellite constellation developed in the past 25 years and will bring this expertise to JP9102. “We appreciate the opportunity the Commonwealth has given Viasat to contribute to its satellite communications systems through our work on the JP2008 programs,” said Viasat Australia government systems managing director, Rob Teasdale. “Viasat has a proven track record of supporting government and commercial programs in Australia, and would be honoured to extend our work with the ADF on the JP9102 initiative. Through our commercial and government program initiatives, as well as our next-generation ViaSat-3 satellite that will serve Asia Pacific, we believe we can continue to build sovereign satellite engineering capability in the region.”
Boeing is also working with IDIC to find opportunities for Indigenous-owned and -controlled businesses on JP9102 by aligning discrete work packages to their capabilities as well as supporting capability growth. “To have First Nations businesses and people involved from the very beginning allows us to develop and build capability and capacity”, said IDIC director, George Mifsud. “After all, what could be more sovereign than having Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses working on a sovereign SATCOM solution?”
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