Minister for Defence Peter Dutton toured veteran owned and operated EPE’s headquarters in Brisbane, gaining insight into the company’s sovereign capability.
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The Minister was joined by the Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Trevor Evans, where the pair examined EPE’s new Military Training, Evaluation, Certification and Systems Assurance (MILTECS) proving grounds.
According to a release from the company, the MILTECS facility demonstrates a successful example of public private partnership, having been developed with Defence SICP funds and private investment from the company.
Throughout the recent developments, the pair also optimised and expanded the CSIRO/DATA 61 facilities in Queensland’s Centre for Advanced Technologies (QCAT) located in Pullenvale, Brisbane.
Throughout the Ministerial visit, CSIRO’s DATA 61 – a strategic research partner of EPE – also provided an update on the team’s recent success at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean Challenge for robots.
“The ADF is preparing for high-intensity conflict and grey- zone operations against peer adversaries who are not constrained in their use of CBRN agents & ethical use of Unmanned Systems, Machine Learning and AI. To counter these increasingly lethal capabilities, EPE is contributing to the further development of sovereign capability to integrate and test a range of leading-edge technologies,” Warwick Penrose, managing director of EPE said.
[Related: EPE and CSIRO unveil robotics collaboration]