Orbital Corporation Ltd (Orbital UAV) (ASX: OEC) recently hosted Prime Minister, Scott Morrison and Minister for Defence Industry, Melissa Price MP when they announced an extension to the Defence Industry Pathways Programme.
The Programme – headquartered at Western Australia’s Henderson Shipbuilding precinct – has focused on bringing graduates into the maritime domain during a 12-month trial period.
As the Programme transitions out of the pilot phase, it will receive $108.5 million over four years to enable it to provide defence industry exposure to graduates in all domains and across Australia. “There’ll be some 1,500 new graduates that will be able to go through this course,” said Minister Price at a media briefing held at Orbital UAV’s Balcatta manufacturing facility.
“Clearly the course here in Western Australia has been focused on the maritime domain and so this course will very easily be able to be rolled out in places like Adelaide, places like Cairns, but also will be able to adapt this course to aeronautics, for example,” she said.
Ahead of the media briefing, the Prime Minister, Minister Price, Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie, Senator Dean Smith and Vince Connelly MP toured the Orbital UAV facility with CEO and Managing Director Todd Alder.
This was an opportunity to demonstrate to the Prime Minister Orbital UAV’s sovereign capability within the aerospace and defence sector and our potential growth opportunities in the uncrewed domain,” said Mr Alder.
“Our Australian-owned technology is proven ‘in theatre’ and has supported the continued diversification of our customer base over the past two years.
“In addition, I was delighted to showcase the talented team that will be supporting the Australian Army’s LAND129 Phase 3 tactical uncrewed aerial system, via our customer Insitu Pacific,” said Mr Alder.
The company is one of 20 Western Australian companies selected to participate on the Defence West stand.
“Western Australia is home to some of the world’s most innovative suppliers to the global defence industry. The Indo Pacific 2022 International Maritime Exposition provides the perfect platform to demonstrate these capabilities to an international audience,” said WA Minister for Defence Industry, Paul Papalia, in a media statement.
