Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, announced on 26 June 2009 that new technology that promises to significantly reduce the risks for Navy divers is among seven technology proposals to be funded by Defence.

“I congratulate the seven companies for their innovative proposals which will be developed under the Capability & Technology Demonstrator (CTD) Program managed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation,” Mr Combet said.

“These projects are a combination of brand-new technologies and novel applications for existing technologies. It is research like this that helps our Australian Defence Force maintain their capability edge.”

One of the proposed technologies from Sydney company Blue Glue, was demonstrated at the Sydney Aquarium with a wrist-mounted computer that monitors a diver’s vital signs from the surface to enhance safety during operations.

Other successful proposals include:

• Software to streamline information flow between old and new command and control systems (Saab Systems);
• Technology to improve Defence’s geospatial information storage capability (SMS Defence Solutions);
• Enhanced surveillance technology for unmanned aerial vehicles (BAE Systems);
• A high-power, low frequency underwater acoustic system for minesweeping (Thales Australia);
• A secure hard drive for protection and movement of classified data (Secure Systems); and
• A system to detect potential threats from moving and static ground vehicles (Sentient Vision Systems)

“The selected proposals represent a wide variety of industry expertise from both small to medium sized enterprises and established Defence contractors,” Mr Combet said.

The CTD Program supports Australian industry to demonstrate new technologies that contribute to Defence capability. The projects announced in late June have been allocated funding of $13 million.