Defence invests $10 million to build AI capability and support critical tech
Ten Australian companies have been awarded Defence Innovation Hub contracts worth some $10 million under the Australian government’s new Blueprint for Critical Technologies and Action Plan to develop innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.
The investment is designed to strengthen Defence’s military capability and support highly skilled jobs in Australia’s defence industry. It also contributes to the development of a sovereign critical technology capability in AI, one of the Government’s nine listed critical technologies of national interest.
The contracts funded under this Blueprint form part of the Government’s two-year, $32 million COVID economic stimulus package, said Minister for Defence Industry and Science and Technology Melissa Price.
“These contracts will help develop exciting and new AI technologies,” she said. “This will be achieved through the use of Defence’s intelligence mission data to improve situational awareness, and intelligent virtual reality to enhance simulation, modelling and training for our ADF personnel.
“Attracting businesses from the AI sector to partner with Defence is a positive step towards achieving this,” she added. “These contracts will boost Australian businesses and build a strong sovereign capability that can develop and integrate world-leading AI technology into Australia’s Defence Force,” Minister Price said.
Contracts announced under the Defence Innovation Hub:
| Organisation | State | Investment Value
(GST incl.) |
Description of innovation |
| Lumination – Technology For Education Solutions Pty Ltd | SA | $1.9 million | To develop an immersive, portable visualisation platform that delivers AI augmented scenarios using virtual reality and training simulation technology. |
| Simbiant Pty Ltd | SA | $2.2 million | To develop a radio frequency generation, detection, characterisation and classification system based on AI. |
| Solinnov Pty Ltd | SA | $1.4 million | To develop a portable radio frequency monitoring solution through the development of machine learning technology to identify, classify and locate radio frequency emitters in complex operating environments. |
| Droneshield Limited | NSW | $945,000 | To develop an AI enabled software to detect, track, classify and relay contact signals from multiple input feeds, and provide a combined output to the operator. |
| Mellori Solution Pty Ltd | NSW | $920,000 | To develop an innovative software application to automate radio frequency analysis from multiple sensors across the electromagnetic spectrum. |
| Ignition Immersive Pty Ltd | VIC | $914,000 | To develop a system that enables the generation of photorealistic imagery in a virtual reality environment using AI to do this automatically, in real-time. |
| Real Response Pty Ltd | VIC | $669,000 | To develop a highly realistic medical care training simulator using AI that could enhance training and learning by adjusting the complexity of training scenarios based on visual and biometric feedback from the trainee. |
| CAE Australia Pty Ltd | NSW | $644,000 | To develop a deployable augmented reality 3D virtual modelling tool that is designed to assist Defence with AI enabled decision support to planning. |
| CruxML Pty Ltd | NSW | $496,000 | To develop a real-time Specific Emitter Identification system using advanced machine learning algorithms and new techniques in computer architectures to achieve identification and classification of radio frequency signals in real time. |
| Cirrus Real Time Processing Systems Pty Ltd |
NSW | $464,000 | To develop an easily deployable Electronic Support Measure system that enables the Sensor Association Fusion Engine (SAFE) technology to form a common operating picture from multiple sensors. |