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Australian companies AOS and Asension have partnered to launch HERCULES EW at Land Forces, offering an Australian-made EW network for the ADF.
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According to a release from the companies, the HERCULES EW leverages four components to deliver network survivability and scale, including:
- The AOS iWatchdog, which is a multi-vehicle tasking system that is also expected to enable to control of autonomous vehicles.
- The Kelpie, an autonomous vehicle designed by AOS.
- The Harlequin, which was developed by the Defence Science and Technology Group and enables radio planning and optimisation in threat environments.
- The Wombat, a locally made and software defined transceiver which enables “user-configurable RF applications”.
Andrew Lucas, managing director of AOS, explained that the system is a cost-effective solution for the Australian Army.
“Historically, the EW equipment that offers protection and enables offensive operations has been bulky and expensive. It has been housed in fixed locations, such as a deployed HQ, or more recently, under LAND 555, as equipment installed in a number of Bushmasters. But now we have HERCULES EW, which is a game changer,” Lucas said.
“HERCULES EW is a sophisticated, AI-driven system that will allow the Army to penetrate difficult areas with the communication network resilience they need, without risking the lives of our soldiers.
“With the HERCULES EW — a combination of Asension’s Wombat, AOS’ iWatchdog TM, the AOS autonomous Kelpie TM vehicle and DST Group’s HARLEQUIN — we have a cost-effective solution that delivers what the Army needs right now,” Lucas concluded.
Ian Spencer, chief executive officer of Asension, explained that the capability was designed to enable easy deployment.
“It is a remotely configurable EW transceiver that works in a coordinated manner providing a distributed, efficient, electronic attack capability and a defensive ESM function,” Spencer explained.
“HERCULES EW is the perfect application for the Asension Wombat, and we are excited to collaborate with another innovative Australian company to deliver this unique sovereign capability solution.”
[Related: Asension selected to deliver space-based tactical sensor system for Defence]
