Faces of Thales - Andy Kirkpatrick

As a young boy growing up by the water, Sales Director of Digital Systems, Andy Kirkpatrick, recalls "looking out into the wide ocean where all the Naval ships were and dreaming of the adventures that a life in the Navy could offer." The application form to join the service was quite literally placed in his lap when his brother got a copy of the form and intended to apply himself but had 'never got around to it'. So, a 15-year-old Andy applied instead and was accepted. What followed was a 31-year Naval career serving in multiple war zones and a 14-year (and counting!) career with Thales supporting our Australian Defence Force (ADF) customer. Here is his story.

A distinguished military career spanning numerous ships and countries

After he was accepted into the Navy, Andy was given two days to pack his bags and move from country Queensland to Perth, where he completed his initial 12 months of Naval training before going to Melbourne to undertake category training for the specific job he was required to do.

Andy became a communications specialist – an area he stayed in whilst moving up the ranks within the military from Junior Recruit to Warrant Officer. The first ship he was posted on after finishing the communications training course was the HMAS Vampire, the only ship he served on that remains afloat to this day. He learnt Morse code to communicate silently with other ships using flashing flights and provided radio circuitry to allow the command team to communicate with other ships. Andy was also responsible for manoeuvring the ship around the ocean to avoid collision with others. Over the years, he has seen the communications systems evolve from largely manual based systems to more advanced information, communications and technology systems that are used today.

From HMAS Vampire, he was posted to various other locations around the world including to both the Gulf Wars, where he coordinated the logistics for all the Australian ships deployed to the Red Sea. It was during this time, while on HMAS Kanimbla, he developed and implemented a communications plan to allow the 14 Coalition countries (including the Five Eyes alliance that Australia belongs to and nine Gulf countries) to securely communicate with each other during a covert operation to ensure 108 civilian ships and small watercrafts in the area could be thoroughly inspected and then allowed safe passage out of the region before formal attacks against the Saddam Hussein regime started. The plan ensured HMAS Kanimbla maintained command and control over the other Coalition partners via data and voice. For these activities, Andy was awarded an Order of Australia Medal, an honour that confers the highest recognition of Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or meritorious service.  His ship was recognised as having operated at the highest level of communications ability and awarded the Commodore Wardle Cup, named after the cup’s namesake, who had made significant contributions to the Royal Australian Navy. 

Andy also spent three and a half years in Washington D.C. working with the other Five Eyes nations – United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom and New Zealand – to provide communication and Information Communication Technology capabilities to their Defence Forces.

Transitioning into civilian life by applying his communications expertise at Thales

After 31 years in the military, Andy says he reached an age where he needed to decide whether to stay in the navy or look for a new career. It just so happened that Andy was approached by Thales for a potential opportunity At the time, the Thales team were working on a project involving deployed ICT,where Thales ICT staff work alongside the ADF on operation).  Andy was asked to join as the Project Manager for the Deployable Local Area Network program to help. One of the first challenges that Andy first tackled involved implementing permanent communications solutions in the ADF’s operations in East Timor, the Solomon Islands and the Middle East. The team worked tirelessly to successfully deliver 150 green cases containing ICT equipment for use in those operational areas earlier than expected and well below budget. Andy laughs when he recalls the cases being put through an unintentional stress test when the semi-trailer transporting the cases from Perth to Sydney rolled over on the Nullarbor Plains and the cases only suffering minor dents. “The design that Thales put into the cases certainty held up!”

Currently, Andy is the Sales Director for Digital Systems, providing communications, command, control and computers across Army, Navy and the Air Force.

“We are extremely customer focused and know their pain points. We’re very proud of being recognised by the customer as the people who are called in to resolve the hard stuff for the ADF,” Andy says before adding “Our goal is to make sure Defence can get the right information to the right people at the right time to make decisions.”

Two main projects that Andy is working on includes the LAND121 Phase 4 project, integral computer systems for the Hawkei vehicles so soldiers can use a single screen to do everything they need to rather than having to switch between screens, and SEA1442, providing maritime tactical wide-area network for the Navy that controls every satellite signal or phone call that goes on and off the ship. “In essence, digital systems provides the glue that brings all the technologies together,” Andy summarises.

When asked about his career highlights to date, Andy is quick to point out the delivering of “Hybrid Deployable Local Area Network (DLAN) into Defence operations in Iraq and Iran where our soldiers were at war. “We made a significant contribution to the ADF during their planning and operations, and to bringing soldiers home safely. Being involved in these activities is extremely satisfying,” says Andy. More recently, Thales was called to provide satellite terminals to assist with the Australian Government’s efforts in evacuating civilians out of Afghanistan. “We got the call at 10:30 PM to supply these terminals, which replaces the mobile phone network in times when the network is overwhelmed. We put them on the plane that same night at 3 AM and they arrive in Kabul 18 hours later,” Andy says and adds “We were also asked to urgently supply satellites to support the ADF in delivering humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in Tonga!” Andy is very proud to be able to respond so quickly and proactively to these Defence requests and to fix issues that competitors struggle to resolve. The team have received a lot of positive feedback from the customer, praising the team for making the hard stuff look easy. This is quite an achievement considering the digital ecosystem is becoming more complex, having to integrate various systems into one.

A key reason why Thales is able to do such amazing things is because we have some very smart people. For Thales to continue to grow into the future, we need to leverage off the minds of our young people. This is the generation that has grown up with technology and so they look at things through a completely different lens. They’re constantly putting forward ideas that I would never have thought of myself. We have a real responsibility to grow the leaders of tomorrow."

On the back of that sentiment, Andy encourages everyone to never stop learning and testing themselves, and be willing to participate and contribute. He also advises people to not be afraid of putting their point across and to be prepared to argue those points.

A passion for advocating for veteran issues as well as playing rugby union

Working on issues affecting veterans is something that Andy is very passionate about and he is a member of Thales Australia’s Veterans Committee.  Thales’s Veteran’s Committee is focused on supporting veteran transition out of Defence into the private workforce and veteran safety with a particular focus on mental health issues – issues that have been made even more challenging during the COVID pandemic. 

With the Australian Government’s Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide interim report due next year, and given the large number of veterans that make up Thales’s workforce Andy notes “We want to encourage people to talk openly about mental health issues, not just for veterans but for everyone. This will become a big focus for us in the new year.”

Something else that Thales is involved in is giving talks to people who are existing Defence members to inform them about the career opportunities that Thales can offer them. Andy says working for Thales after his military career has been very satisfying because he gets to stay in touch with his Defence networks. “You always run into someone that you served with and its always great to catch up with them to see what they are up to. Another great joy for me is being able to travel to Garden Island and taking people on tours of the ships to show them the capabilities available.”

During his time in the Navy, he represented both the Navy and the ADF in rugby union and went on numerous overseas tours. This is a pastime that Andy is still keenly involved in, playing for the Navy Old Salts Team in Canberra. “It keeps my mind active and my body fit. Though I must admit, it takes longer for me to recover from a game these days.” Andy laughs.

Read Andy’s blog post 

Andy has shared his experiences and insights in a recent naval themed blog post to promote how the cloud-based Nexium Defence Cloud Edge innovation built by Thales, in partnership with Microsoft, will improve decision-making at sea. Click here.