Australian Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, has officially opened Thomas Global System’s new Electronic and Embedded Systems Innovation Hub.
Thomas Global Systems is one of the thousands of small-to-medium enterprises around Australia that support the acquisition and sustainment of capability for the Australian Defence Force.
“The Hub has been designed to optimize innovation, fully developing the technology concepts through to integration for applications in the commercial aerospace and defence markets,” Minister Payne said.
Thomas Global Systems has supplied ground vehicle display systems, mission system solutions, and defence systems sustainment across a number of platforms including the S70B Seahawks, the Australian Light Armoured Vehicle, the M1A1 Abrams Tank, the Collins class submarines, and the Vigilare Integrated Air Defence System.
“Thomas Global System’s approach to harnessing innovation to create cutting-edge capability for the Australian Defence Force is the type of ingenuity the Turnbull Government is seeking to foster in Australian defence industry,” Minister Payne said.
The initiatives outlined in the new Defence Industry Policy Statement that was released with the 2016 Defence White Paper last week will assist companies like Thomas Global Systems to innovate and generate new capability solutions for the Australian Defence Force.
“The Defence Industry Policy Statement demonstrates the Turnbull Government’s strategy to bring a new approach to innovation in Defence. This is good for capability, it’s good for industry, and it’s good for the Australian economy and jobs.”
The Defence Industry Policy Statement also sets out the Government’s commitment to reduce the complexity and red tape in doing business with Defence. This will assist Thomas Global Systems and many other small-to-medium enterprises to access opportunities in Defence, and to nurture innovative ideas from initial concept, through prototyping and testing, to introduction to service.
“Innovation is at the heart of the Government’s agenda to transform Australia into a 21st Century economy.”
