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The Defence Science and Technology Group will collaborate with Grollo Aerospace to provide Australian defence with an enhanced capability for evaluating Australia’s air defence systems.
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The collaboration will give Defence a cost-effective means to test the performance of modern weapon systems targeted at Australian Defence Force aircraft.
Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne said the partnership will maximise Grollo’s technology, the Evader MLG-RAM, for Australia's defence industry.
"This partnership will improve the performance of Grollo’s autonomous supersonic aerial target, Evader, which replicates the flight characteristics of advanced airborne threats," said Minister Pyne.
"The key objective is to enhance this autonomous air vehicle technology and maximise its utility for Defence applications."
Minister Pyne said the government was firmly committed to technology collaboration between Defence and industry to enhance ADF capability.
"We’re keen that Australian companies, especially small and medium enterprises, have every opportunity to collaborate with Defence on meeting future capability needs," he said.
Grollo Aerospace is working towards a demonstration of the Evader target system in 2018.
"This collaboration will address the world-wide demand for an affordable means of evaluating the performance of weapons systems against modern threats," Minister Pyne said.
The collaboration agreement was signed by the Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky and Mark Grollo, managing director and chief engineer of Grollo Aerospace at the Australian International Airshow at Avalon.
This collaboration is another win for the Victorian defence industry, with other collaborations also recently signed.
The Evader is a high speed platform that will provide a reusable and affordable solution to the rapidly evolving market of unmanned airborne technology, according to Grollo.
Grollo said Evader is also fully autonomous and designed to replicate flight characteristics of some of the world's most advanced airborne threats.
Both Evader and its ground support system are highly portable, allowing rapid setup and flight turnaround in remote areas. Equipped with variable inlet and nozzle geometry, the ramjet propulsion system is designed to operate efficiently over a broad altitude range at supersonic speeds.
