BAE Systems Australia has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Defence Industry on the Next Generation Technologies Fund. Funds such as this are important to allow the incubation of ideas and their subsequent access to market.
Technology has a clear role to play in creating opportunities for economic growth as well as ensuring that we maintain a capability edge in Defence and Security.
BAE Systems Australia Chief Executive Officer, Glynn Phillips said: “We are working to provide leading edge capabilities in a way that increases the skills of the domestic workforce and ensure sovereign control over those technologies that we advance.
“We have an opportunity to utilise new technology to deliver increased capability and to do so in a way that benefits the entire nation.
“We look forward to continuing to work with DST Group on conducting world leading collaborative research in defence technologies.
“BAE Systems Australia and DST Group have worked together for over 30 years developing and advancing technologies that are now a staple of the Australian Defence Force.
“Over the past five years we have invested 260 million dollars in Australia on research and development*, over four times more per employee than the rest of the Australian economy.”
*Source: Oxford economics report: The Impact of BAE Systems on Australia