Assessing 3D auditory displays in AMRL's audio laboratory.

• Structural Fatigue Testing: Structural fatigue testing was pioneered by AMRL at Fishermens Bend in the 1940's and is now essential in all theory and aircraft development. This testing can enable the operation of aircraft beyond their design life, resulting in significant savings to Defence.

• Composite Bonded Repair: Originally developed to prolong the life of RAAF fighter aircraft, this AMRL invention has been applied to civilian 727 and 767 aircraft. To date it has resulted in savings to Defence of hundreds of millions of dollars.

• Focal-plane Array for Synchronous Thermaography (FAST): FAST is a stress measurement system invented by AMRL scientists to measure and produce, in minimal time, higher resolution maps of stress in structures than was previously possible. Using FAST, AMRL scientists successfully identified the point of structural fatigue that resulted in the loss of a RAAF Orion aircraft in 1990.

• Aircraft Accident Investigation: AMRL scientists have continued to develop new crash investigation technology that is used by authorities around the world. The use of the Global Positioning System to map an accident site is a technique recently pioneered by scientists at AMRL.

• ALR 2002: Scientists at DSTO's Electronics and Surveillance Research Laboratory (ESRL) have designed a complex radar warning receiver to replace those in the existing RAAF fleet of F-111 aircraft. The ALR 2002 has the capacity to detect modern radar and radar guided weapons.

• The Sythetic Research Environment Facility (SERF): The SERF provides a virtual environment in which Defence personnel are able to assess systems designed to provide better understanding of the battlespace.

• 3-D Helmet: DSTO is working to make fighter cockpits more user-friendly and improve safety. Its work includes helmet mounted displays, where information is projected onto the helmet's visor, allowing pilots to line up a threat with a turn of the head instead of manoeuvring the aircraft. It also includes three dimensional audio, where sound appears to come from a specific location, indicating the location and type of threat.

• Global Hawk: Australian Ground Station Element (AGE): DSTO scientists and industry have boosted the capabilities of the United States' unmanned aerial vehicle, Global Hawk, with the development of a ground station. The ground station receives the information relayed from Global Hawk in real or near real time and was the key to demonstrating the interoperability between the US and Australia during Global Hawk's deployment to Australia earlier this year.