From the Magazine: FUTURE ROLES FOR AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY IN MILITARY SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

JP9102 is a major multi-billion dollar capability project that will create the Australian Defence Satellite Communications System across the space, ground and control segments. The Commonwealth anticipates capability will start to be available from the mid-2020s. Tender bids for this project closed on 10 January and as far as APDR can ascertain, there were five major offers by this date. These were led by Airbus, Boeing Defence Australia, Lockheed Martin Australia, Northrop Grumman Australia and Optus. APDR is not currently aware of any other organisations submitting bids for the whole of this project. APDR’s November 2021 edition, available as a back issue via the home page on our website, had an article by Editor Kym Bergmann on pages 44-47 which summarised the likely main features of each of these group’s bids. Because the Commonwealth insists on Australian Industry Content (AIC) for its projects, their Request for Tender document contained this paragraph, among others, on AIC conditions. The Contractor shall comply with the AIC Obligations; comply with the Approved AIC Plan; and ensure that the AIC Subcontractors comply with their respective AIC Subcontractor Obligations. Australian industry, providing AIC, is participating as members in each of the five bid teams. One surprise to APDR was that some Australian companies feature in more than one bid team. For example, Clearbox Systems are in the teams for Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. APDR asked each bid principal how they have, and will continue to cope, with such overlaps. This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the full story click here. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Director of Sales Graham Joss at [email protected]