Saab Australia continues expansion in Space
Saab Australia (Saab) continues its growth in the Space domain, employing a combination of highly transferable command and control capability along with local innovation to expand Australia’s sovereign space capabilities - a key priority for both State and Federal governments.
Saab’s ongoing partnership with the Defence, Science and Technology (DST) Group has contributed to two key projects to date in the areas of Space Mission Control System and Space Domain Awareness.
Using the company’s specialised expertise in systems and software engineering, the Mission Control System was developed in collaboration to support DST’s scientists to manage their space-based research assets now and into the future.
Likewise, Saab’s expert engineering skills are supporting the collaborative development of software for Space Domain Awareness. This expertise enabled the development and enhancement of algorithms to detect and monitor objects in Earth’s orbit, objects launched into space from Earth, and decaying objects re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
Delivery of these programs provides two compelling examples of Saab’s ongoing Research and Development investment in a sovereign Australian Space capability. Furthermore, they demonstrate the company’s ability to transfer significant experience in command and control capabilities, developed over more than 30 years in defence applications, to support innovation in ground-based elements of space technologies.
The ability of companies like Saab to invest in transferring existing adjacent skills and technology to new domains makes practical and financial sense along with growing new skills to meet the needs of the emerging Space industry. It also demonstrated how investment in sovereign capability can be used to seed growth in Australian industry well beyond the core intent.
‘These projects demonstrate how our experience is transferable to a range of different technical problems; including those within the growing Space domain’, said Graham Smith, Chief Engineer at Saab Australia.
“Our involvement in the DST project to support Space Domain Awareness research and development has taken our core strengths in command, control and systems integration, and applied them within the emerging Space industry”, says Graham.
“We’re excited to continue our long standing relationship with Defence. Our increasing work within the Space domain adds a new dimension to our relationship, beyond our current Research and Development alliance, and further strengthens Space related capabilities in both organisations”, Graham continues.