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Chief executive officer of Quickstep, Mark Burgess: Australia is well-suited to defence design and manufacturing. Steven Siewert
by Mark Abernethy
While Australia's defence industry gears up for sovereign capability, some Australian defence contractors are already succeeding on the world stage.
EOS Defence has its research labs and manufacturing facilities in Canberra, where it employs 180 people – mostly engineers and technicians – but 90 per cent of its sophisticated military systems are exported.
Formed in 1983 the EOS Group made its name in space technology, especially satellite-tracking with high-quality optics, smart sensors and stabilisation capabilities so a telescope could be "locked-on" to a target regardless of its speed. When the founder of the company, Dr Ben Greene, was asked to consult to a US defence project to make a remote weapons system properly track targets, EOS also entered into defence contracting.
EOS now operates two research centres in Australia, and has businesses in the United States, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. It also has offices in Germany.
The company's main defence product is a remote weapons system, that is integrated with different guns. Remote weapons systems allow an operator inside the vehicle to find targets and fire the weapon without physically handling the gun or sighting the enemy.
RWS uses high-quality optical and laser sensors to quickly locate a threat, find range and lock on to the target. The speed, range and accuracy of the system allows the commander to engage the enemy before the enemy can engage, and fire upon them first, establishing the desired "over-match".
"We have developed a remote weapons system for a 30-millimetre cannon – the R400 mark 2 – that is mounted on a light vehicle," says Grant Sanderson, chief executive officer of EOS Defence Systems Group. "We can put a level of firepower on a vehicle such as a Hawkei, that's normally reserved for much heavier, armoured vehicles. It's a real advantage for militaries and we're getting a lot of interest from Australia and around the world."
In the past 12 months, EOS Defence has taken orders for $600 million worth of its products.
Tackling modern land threat
Sanderson says light vehicles in modern militaries (Land Rovers, Humvees, Hawkeis, G-Wagons) typically have .50-calibre and 7.62-millimetre machine guns mounted on them. However, the modern land threat includes non-state actors such as IS and al-Qaeda who mount cannons on civilian vehicles, including Chinese and Russian 30mm, 25mm and 14.5mm weapons, some of which are re-purposed anti-aircraft guns.
"A light vehicle in the US or Australian Army has the technology to identify these enemies early, but if the enemy can get into range with a cannon they can cause a lot of damage. "
Sanderson says with a 30mm cannon mounted on a light vehicle, the commander has an over-match advantage. "Our R400 mark 2 with the 30mm cannon gives a two-kilometre range to a light vehicle, and once the RMS is locked-on to the target, it has very high accuracy. Once you have a 30mm cannon you can also use air-burst rounds that create shrapnel."
EOS's R400 mark 2 Remote Weapons Station is so light that even when tethered to a large 30mm gun – supplied by ATK – the set-up weighs about 450 kilograms, complete with armour and fully-loaded with 72 rounds.
"It puts us at least 18 months ahead of the competition globally," says Sanderson. "The 30mm is usually mounted in the nose of an Apache attack helicopter – putting it on to a light vehicle such as a Hawkei is a first, but we can do it by keeping the weight down and using our stabilisation technology.
"Military land vehicles are getting bigger and heavier. The Hawkei and Boxer CRV are significantly heavier than the vehicles they replace. So militaries are looking for weapons systems with superior capability, but no extra weight."
When a 30mm cannon is placed on a light platform, stability and accuracy can be compromised. EOS Defence has resolved this with proprietary engineering that creates stability-under-fire of 1 milliradian, a very high level of stability.
EOS's R400 mark 1 has been in use on 250 Australian Army vehicles, but this earlier version uses the .50 calibre and 7.62mm gun. The Army has taken the R400 mark 2 upgrade on 85 of its vehicles, but still uses the traditional machine gun formats, not the cannon.
The EOS systems will feature on the Rheinmetall Boxer, that recently won the Land 400 Phase 2 tender to supply the Army with Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles. The EOS R400 mark 2 systems will operate on the 42 Boxers that are not turreted – the R400 mk2 uses a gimbal, which saves weight.
Advanced manufacturing
Sanderson says the Australian Army Hawkei program – a 4x4 protected mobility vehicle that partially replaces the Land Rover – has not finalised a weapons system but the R400 mark 2 has been designed to be mounted on the vehicle. It has already been mounted on the US Army M-ATV and the US Army JLTV.
He says the growth of advanced manufacturing and defence contracting in Australia is not an "in spite of Australia'' argument, but "because of".
"The question of how can we remain competitive while manufacturing in Australia relies on two key factors: access to highly-qualified engineers and scientists, and access to high-quality suppliers who can meet our demanding performance standards and manufacturing tolerances.
"For high-technology products the cost of labour is not a big a driver. We're driven by the skills of the engineering workforce and highly capable parts suppliers. In these areas Australia is one of the better places to be manufacturing products such as ours."
The Australian technology environment has also suited Sydney-based defence contractor and advanced manufacturer, Quickstep Holdings.
The world leader in high-end carbon composite manufacture, and other smart materials, is a components supplier to the F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter) and to the new-generation C-130 transport aircraft.
Chief executive officer of Quickstep, Mark Burgess, says the company has invested in technology, processes and highly-qualified people in order to operate at the upper levels of global carbon composites and advanced manufacturing.
"We have invested heavily in autoclave technology and processes, in order to produce at the quality required in these defence programs. The JSF is a fifth-generation stealth fighter, and requires the most complex and high-quality aerospace components in the world today."
Reputation for excellence
Quickstep makes wing flaps for the Lockheed Martin C-130 (and its commercial variant, the LM100J). The company also supplies 30 distinct carbon-composite components for the F-35 stealth fighter, both direct to Lockheed Martin and through sub-system contractors such as BAE Systems, Northrup Grumman and Marand, another Australian defence industry success story.
Burgess says more than 90 per cent of the company's revenues comes from defence industry and slightly more than half of Quickstep's revenues come from the F-35 program. And the components are made at the Bankstown facility in Sydney.
Burgess says the challenge for businesses wanting to operate in the global defence supply chains is to understand the dynamics that exist beyond excellent technology.
"Australian engineers and scientists are known around the world for their innovation and technical excellence," says Burgess, himself an Englishman. "But to be part of these supply chains you can't just have a great invention or a fantastic piece of technology. You also need to prove you can produce at a rate, and to achieve those volumes at a quality benchmark."
He says Quickstep invests constantly in process and technology so it can match the rates required by big defence programs. "We have excess capacity at the moment, but you have to show that to Lockheed Martin and BAE. Two years ago, we were producing 20 to 30 aerospace parts per month; in March 2018, we're doing 160 and over the next two years we'll increase again.
"You can't promise your rate to the Primes – they have to see the excess capacity so they know there'll be no delays in the supply chain. These big programs have to be cost-effective, or they won't work. So as the rate rises we also have to deliver a better price."
Burgess says Australia is well-suited to defence design and manufacturing. He says Australia has a high-level education system and has a particularly strong output of engineers, scientists, technicians and IT professionals – the lifeblood of defence contracting.
"Defence is concerned with quality and technology innovation," says Burgess. "We don't have to compete in high-volume markets – we're low volume, high-quality and high prices and margins."
He says while Australia produces relatively high levels of "ingenuity", the engineering and business disciplines have to keep their eye on process and production in order to be successful in the supply chains.
"The design, the quality, the ingenuity – they are minimum requirements to be in the defence supply chains. But you also need the business planning so you produce at a required rate, and at the highest quality on every component."
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