Defence Alert

QinetiQ, the defence technology company, has announced a new employee engagement plan that will effectively result in the company no longer recognising trade unions from 31 March. It is instead creating an Employee Engagement Group that will be a forum through which all employees can express their views.   "The new Employee Engagement Group will have real powers and budget to act as a representative body for providing recommendations and consultation in the future," a QinetiQ spokesperson said.

The Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) recently achieved a first shot success from a fixed-wing aircraft, BAE Systems announced today. The semi-active laser guided version of the U.S. military’s Hydra rocket successfully hit within inches of the center of its laser spot target after it was fired off a Hawker Beechcraft AT-6C from a range of three miles. This successful test, which BAE Systems accomplished in record time, highlights the potential of APKWS as a low-cost weapon system for reconnaissance and attack aircraft throughout the world.

The Australian defence software industry has passed a "health check" by the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), which determined that its relationship with industry is up to par to support military software. DMO routinely conducts health checks on different areas of its capabilities. One of the latest is to support the software through its life, including real-time support of the mission- and safety-critical software, such as the systems used in the Department of Defence's (DoD) aircraft, vessels and communication systems.

THE Coalition has demanded the head of the Australian Defence Force Academy be immediately reinstated and issued a public apology after an inquiry into last year's Skype sex scandal exonerated him. The Australian today revealed that ADFA commandant Bruce Kafer sought legal advice about a possible compensation claim, after being forced to take leave from his position when the scandal first broke last April.

DEFENCE Minister Stephen Smith should immediately release the Kirkham report into the department's handling of the ADFA sex scandal and "right the wrong" inflicted on Commodore Bruce Kafer, a respected defence analyst said yesterday. Ordering Commodore Kafer, the popular commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy, to be stood down was a "rash" move by Mr Smith, defence commentator Major General Jim Molan said.

THE arrival in 2014 of the first of two 27,000-tonne Landing Helicopter Dock warships represents the biggest change to Australia's "force projection capability" since the navy's first aircraft carrier was acquired more than 60 years ago, Defence Force chief General David Hurley said yesterday. Speaking at a key defence conference in Canberra, General Hurley said restructuring of the army's three combat brigades into an amphibious assault force - the most ambitious revamp of Australian Defence Force doctrine in decades - was on track to enable company-size ship-to-shore landings by 2018.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith does not plan to proceed with a scheduled decision on the purchase of another 58 Joint Strike Fighters valued at almost $6 billion this calendar year. ''It won't be a priority, in my view, this year to make judgments about the receipt or the delivery or the arrival of future or additional Joint Strike Fighters,'' he said at the Australian Defence Magazine Congress in Canberra yesterday.

A disgraced naval officer jailed for spanking a junior sailor will seek to raise a constitutional argument in his bid to have his convictions overturned. Lieutenant John Alan Jones has appealed against all seven convictions handed down in a court martial late last year. The Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal, sitting in Canberra yesterday, heard Jones' counsel had raised an argument under the section of the Constitution covering the right to a trial by jury.

The Department of Defence (DoD) is preparing to run a trial of a new biometrics database designed to hold and compare biometric information that's collected by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel in the field, and which could also be shared with US forces. Such databases are already in use in the US, and are known as Automated Biometrics Information Systems (ABIS).

Guam - Andersen Air Force Base Public Affairs Staff Sergeant Alex Montes confirms an investigation has been launched into an accident involving an aircraft that took place off the waters of Guam. AAFB Public Affairs is still gathering information. Currently underway at the Air Base is Cope North 2012 and the Aviation Training Relocation (ATR) program . Cope North is a tri-lateral exercise involving the Royal Australian Air Force, the U.S. Air Force and the Japan Air Self Defense Force.

Federal Defence Minister Stephen Smith has warned of a potential capability gap between the retirement of the ageing Collins submarines and arrival of new submarines. Mr Smith said the project to acquire the 12 new submarines, promised in the 2009 Defence White Paper, would be the largest and most complex defence project ever undertaken in Australia. But with complexity came risk, he said.

Boeing  cemented an order on Monday worth almost $1.5 billion to build a slew of jumbo passenger jets for Pakistan International Airplanes. The Chicago-based aerospace giant said the deal includes a firm order of five 777-300ER (extended range) jets as well as the purchase rights for an additional five. “We are proud that Pakistan International Airlines is a special Boeing customer that continues to invest and trust in the industry-leading capabilities of the 777 family of airplanes,” Marty Bentrott, vice president of sales for the Middle East, Russia and Central Asia for Boeing, said in a statement.

Two defence industry 'health checks' confirmed Australia is well-placed to support essential military software, and to help avoid detection of defence equipment. Releasing the health checks today, Minister for Defence Materiel Senator Kim Carr said government, defence and industry needed to work together to sustain important defence capabilities in Australia.

Amid the flurry of diplomatic activity in November 2011, President Barack Obama announced that US Marines would begin rotations to Darwin in 2012 starting with some 250 personnel at the Australian Army’s Robertson Barracks and growing to a target of 2,500 Marines in the years ahead. The Marine deployment is a signal of US commitment to Asia as our allies and partners worry about a shift in the regional balance of power. It also helps the US overcome the tyranny of distance by having forward-deployed forces for a variety of contingencies, including disaster relief.

What is the business? - The sphere of the defence industry is broadening. The focus is no longer purely on air, land and naval hardware and armament. Demand is turning to areas such as cybersecurity, C4I (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence), home security (such as ID and passport control) as well as training and support. [...]

Last month, the U.S. Pentagon announced cuts to their defence budget, and similar steps have already been taken in the UK. But some are calling for military research projects to go untouched. Military research has transformed our lives in a profound way. Throughout the 20th century, the defence budget for science research has steadily increased. World-wide conflicts during that period have resulted in massive boosts to military-sponsored research.

Battery life is a crucial issue on any portable device drawing power - from cell phones to something as big as a car. Of course, the larger the battery, the more it weighs. Structural batteries which store power in the parts that make up the device are seen as a solution to this issue and BAE systems is working on such systems with the aim of lightening the load for frontline soldiers.

Washington is about to hand America’s enemies - at least, the ones who want to do us harm - a gift. It comes in the form of deep, reckless cuts to the military budget. Both the White House and congressional leaders agreed when they signed off on the Budget Control Act of 2011 that if its automatic cuts went into effect they would compromise national security.

Today, the President will visit the Boeing assembly facility in Everett, Washington, to announce new steps aimed at promoting American manufacturing and increasing U.S. exports. Manufacturing represents nearly 60% of total U.S. exports, and Boeing is one of the country's leading exporters of manufactured goods with more than $34 billion in total exports in 2011, up over 45% since 2006.

The first bomb you defuse is always the hardest, especially if you're under enemy fire and you know the bomb is powerful enough to turn an armoured vehicle into scrap metal. So says Leading Seaman B, and he should know. The 30-year-old is part of an elite branch of the Royal Australian Navy based in Rockingham, a group of men whose nerves of steel and specialist training has placed them on the front line in Afghanistan, Australia's flesh and blood weapons in the deadly fight against insurgent bombs.