Accelerating Australia’s Strategic Readiness: 30+ years of Australian munitions manufacturing and building a hypersonics industry

In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast from the Land Forces 2022 conference, Duncan Watt, general manager of guided weapons and hypersonics at Thales, and Mat Jones, head of future business at BAE Systems Australia, join host Phil Tarrant to discuss how the companies have teamed up to build a sovereign hypersonics and guided weapons capability.

• The podcast begins with a discussion of the Thales and BAE Systems Australia partnership, where homegrown intellectual property is being utilised to build a unique missile solution.
• They continue discussing how Australia is well positioned to develop hypersonic deterrent, having maintained significant research from Nulka and the Evolved SeaSparrow.
• Watt and Jones also discuss the broader concept of hypersonic deterrence, explaining that the industry is not simply aiming to develop one single prototype but an entire industrial ecosystem to produce capabilities at scale.

Read more about Thales Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance capability.