Close up of a facsimile display designed and built by Thomas for use in the ASLAV Crew Procedural Trainer by Thales Training and Simulation.

In the 1980’s Thomas Electronics of Australia (TEOA), established in 1956, expanded its market beyond television tube manufacturing and repairs, adding defence.

After 30 years of developing and supporting Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) technology for the commercial market, Thomas recognised an opportunity to use the company’s expertise to develop displays for defence applications and simulators.

The company’s first defence job was as a sub-contractor to BAE Systems, developing the display for the Mulloka sonar system used for shallow water detection of torpedoes and submarines.

TEOA now fills a niche in simulation and has been involved in about eight simulator projects over the past 10 years both through primes and on its own. The simulation projects include the F/A-18 Hornet, the S70B-2 Seahawk helicopter, Guided Missile Frigates (FFG), PC-9 Trainer and the Australian Light Armoured Vehicle (ASLAV). The company also provides support for the video projection systems used on a large number of Australian Defence Force (ADF) simulators.

TEOA Managing Director William Hutchinson said a third of the company’s 80 employees now work in its aerospace and defence division.

‘Our latest simulation contract was as a subcontractor to Thales Training & Simulation on the ASLAV Crew Procedural Trainer (CPT) project. We started out winning a small amount of work, a $10,000 contract to develop a single prototype sight.

‘Having proved our competence on this less critical work, more was sent our way. Thales tasked us to provide replica sights for the entire CPT and we supplied ten sights in total.

‘The sights provided a realistic training scenario. It’s the crew’s view of the outside world. It has to look and feel as if you are in a real vehicle.

‘All of the mediums through which the crew view the outside world from within the vehicle needed to be replicated for the training to be realistic, and I believe we achieved a great result,’ Mr Hutchinson said.

Having completed the ASLAV job TEOA’s defence plans involve the continued development of their current capability and expansion from the simulator applications into work on real systems.

‘We are keen to take on more significant chunks of work with the primes and become a higher order subcontractor,’ Mr Hutchinson said.

‘We are hoping to be involved on the Amphibious Ship, Air Warfare Destroyer and Joint Strike Fighter programmes and are actively looking for opportunities in build to print work and through life support.

‘I believe we are well positioned, having made a serious effort to inform the primes of our specialist capabilities and doing what we can to get on their radar early on in the piece,’ he said.

TEOA has supplied defence for a quarter of a century and is acknowledged under the Defence Recognised Supplier Scheme as a company with strategically important defence capability. The company also holds airworthiness certification in Australia , Europe , the United States and China for its aviation products and services.

For further information on TEAO visit www.thomas.com.au