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QinetiQ Australia has confirmed that they have received a five-year extension for the Mine Warfare Maintenance Facility support contract, ensuring continued maintenance, sustainment and engineering of mine warfare training aids.
The services are expected to enhance the training capabilities of the Maritime Explosive Ordnance System Program Office.
The company has partnered with the RAN since being awarded the contract in 2017 to develop a sovereign mine warfare training solution and has worked intimately with the RAN Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving (MCD) team and Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving System Program Office (MCDSPO) since 2018 to enhance the RAN’s mine warfare training capabilities.
“QinetiQ has worked closely with MEOSPO to support RAN and the mine warfare training capability. The ability of QinetiQ team to change and adapt to meet new and demanding requirements required by the RAN has led to the extension of their current contract,” director, Maritime Explosive Ordnance SPO – East, Lawrence McDougall said.
To achieve this, the company undertook a rapid design and development of training mines locally.
“As the capability has grown, it has been great to see the user groups collaborating to challenge their crews against real world representative threats in challenging scenarios,” said QinetiQ Australia managing director Greg Barsby.
“What has already been achieved is really just the ‘catalyst’ for future capability and solidifying the RAN as a world leader in mine warfare training and threat representation so they can train as they mean to fight.”
The team at QinetiQ Australia is currently working with defence to develop more sophisticated training systems, including sensor packages that meet user needs.
[Related: QinetiQ, RUAG among new tranche of Defence funding recipients]
