Company
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round Australian Defence Force raised.
Companies Australian Defence Force acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Sir Angus Houston | Defence Force Chief (former) | @AuManufacturing |
Stories naming Australian Defence Force. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Drone maker SYPAQ Systems has won regulator approval to self-authorise beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights across Australia; the piece also recalls its Corvo X system entering service under the Australian Army's DEF129 program.
Queensland's government has granted Aviation Australia $3 million from its Sovereign Industry Development Fund to build a Townsville training centre with simulation equipment for future defence aviation maintenance engineers.
A Perth-based maker of military drones has lodged listing paperwork with the corporate regulator ahead of a planned sharemarket float; its current Defence Force munitions contract is worth $24.2 million.
Queensland's government will grant over $500,000 to Gold Coast armour maker Craig International Ballistics from its Sovereign Industry Development Fund, expanding hard armour plate output and creating 47 jobs by late 2027.
A Western Australian maker of military drones has opened its bookbuild for a $40 million float, aiming for a securities exchange debut within about a month.
The federal government is paying Electro Optic Systems $5.7 million under a Mission Syracuse contract to mature its R400 Slinger counter-drone weapon system, adding to earlier backing of AIM Defence and SYPAQ.
Counter-drone maker DroneShield has appointed retired Rear Admiral Lee Goddard as an independent non-executive director, citing his decades of defence leadership and board experience.
Canberra has awarded initial contracts worth $21.3 million and $10.4 million to two counter-drone companies under a defence accelerator program, with billions more set aside for drone technology across the coming decade.
Germany's Mehler Systems has signed an agreement to take a major stake in Queensland ballistic protection maker Craig International Ballistics, pending foreign investment approval, gaining Asia-Pacific reach and Australian Defence Force relationships.
C2 Robotics has named Troy Duggan, a former naval platform commander, as its chief executive. The piece also describes the firm's teaming with Thales Australia and Austal Australia on undersea surveillance.
Aurora Labs raised A$5.5 million in a placement that brought drone-engine maker Sovereign Propulsion Systems in as cornerstone backer, and signed SPS to test and exclusively distribute its turbine engines across AUKUS countries.
Visionary Machines has won a 4.4 million dollar government grant, matched by its investors toward an 8.75 million dollar project, to speed commercialisation and Sydney manufacturing of its Pandion counter-drone sensing system.
Quantum firm Q-CTRL ran a shipboard trial of its quantum navigation sensor on a Royal Australian Navy vessel, operating 144 hours unattended and showing GPS-independent positioning, with results validated in a journal.
Quantum sensing startup DeteQt, spun out of the University of Sydney, has raised $750,000 in pre-seed funding from Main Sequence and Austin's ATP Fund, and holds a $3 million defence contract.
ADT and Penten have received federal contracts totalling above $8m through a national defence accelerator, funding year-long electronic warfare prototype projects which, the minister says, secure over 150 jobs.
Also Defence Connect
Roundup of the week's five most-read manufacturing stories: a defence radio contract for Codan, university facility funding, a WEF white paper, ASCA missile-defence awards, and a port chair's farewell.
ASCA has contracted two unnamed defence firms, one from Adelaide and one from Brisbane, to mature technology that degrades enemy air-defence systems, under a $61.5 million initial government investment.
Weekly roundup of five popular stories: a Victorian hydrogen plant groundbreaking, Titomic's CEO change and $30 million raise, a defence laser contract, a WA shipbuilding precinct, and Civmec's framework to take over Luerssen Australia.
Also @AuManufacturing
Bondi Partners' 1941 fund has put $5 million into The Whiskey Project Group's latest capital raise, which could reach $20 million and will fund US expansion plus growth of its NSW boatyard.
A Northern Territory developer of portable desalination gear has landed a government grant toward a bigger production project with two partners, aiming to take its device to full manufacture.
Roundup of Australian manufacturing updates: Sparc Hydrogen's R&D tax refund, executive appointments at Lockheed Martin Australia, Wellnex Life and Raytheon, a ReNu Energy power purchase deal, and BlueScope joining a low-carbon research centre.
AuManufacturing analysis weighing whether Defence's drone purchase shows procurement reform is working, tracing Sypaq's Corvo from 2018 concept work to selection alongside a German rival.
Australia's federal government announced plans to buy two military drone systems — Germany's Quantum-Systems Vector and Melbourne maker SYPAQ's CorvoX — for the Army and Air Force, with deliveries expected in 2025.
Defence Connect reports the launch of Periscope Capital Partners, a private equity fund aiming to deploy $1 billion of private capital into Australian defence businesses over the next decade, led by Mark Stevens.
More than eleven Australian defence firms have contracted to build drone prototypes under ASCA's Sovereign UAS Challenge, with contracts worth a combined $1.21 million and demonstrations planned for April.
Also @AuManufacturing
Manufacturing briefs: Victoria backs a skills program, Titomic supplies an Air France subsidiary, a pool-technology firm hires a sales chief, Bod Science banks a tax rebate, and Amaero completes a placement.
Roundup: ClearVue gets a $935,000 research tax credit; UNSW and Northrop Grumman Australia team up on quantum communications; Sentinel Boats shows an autonomous vessel; UOW leads national research rankings; LETA welcomes CCS progress.
The Defence Department has granted C2 Robotics a third allocation of innovation money to advance its Speartooth underwater drone toward a second-generation prototype and a deployable container system.
Redflow banks extra placement money atop its August raise; Flinders University plans a space-cyber forum; VEX Robotics partners with a robotics peak body; a munitions venture wins an award; DXN lands a cable contract.
Australia will create the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator, backed by a decade-long $3.4 billion commitment, to speed defence innovation and procurement; the news follows Fleet Space's recently revealed $6.4m Defence contract.
Weekly roundup of six Australian startups that together raised $114.5 million, spanning payments, drone defence, carbon accounting, medical AI and health tech, across rounds from pre-seed to Series D.
Melbourne defence manufacturer Corvus will use a $3 million federal Modern Manufacturing Initiative grant to install precision machinery in Victoria and create over 300 jobs, while partnering with Hanwha on army vehicle bids.
An opinion piece arguing AUKUS Pillar Two reaches beyond submarines into quantum, autonomy, AI and hypersonics, citing Australian players including Internet 2.0, Anduril Australia and Hypersonix.
Roundup of Australian manufacturing items: EMVision collects grant money, Anduril completes a large Series E, Adherium receives a tax incentive payment, Tindo Solar's sales double, and Glaciem wins a New York clean energy program place.
Also Forbes Australia
News roundup: Elsight locks in $8 million through convertible notes; Northrop Grumman extends its Quickstep supply agreement; Titomic grows US sales; Fleet Space to survey for Core Lithium; Venture Catalyst Space applications open.
Nine companies received Defence Innovation Hub contracts totalling $19 million to develop technologies for the Australian Defence Force, with RFTEQ winning the largest single award of $5.31 million.
Australia's Defence Innovation Hub has granted ten companies defence contracts totalling $23 million, the largest being $5.88 million to A.W. Bell Machinery, in an announcement made by minister Melissa Price.