Joint Strike Fighter conference brings, Australian, world defence scientists together

More than 250 of Australia’s best academic, scientific and technical brains came together in Melbourne recently for the third Australian Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Advanced Technology and Innovation Conference. Representatives from the US government, as well as defence manufacturers Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and General Electric interacted with Australian R&D specialists and people from Australian industry on the occasion.

Program Manager of Defence’s New Air Combat Capability project, Air Vice Marshal John Harvey said using as much Australian technology as possible in the development of the JSF is a key objective of Australia’s ongoing participation in the global JSF programme. He said that the conference identified considerable scope for future collaboration between Australian industry, universities and R&D organisations in the JSF project.

On the sidelines of the Conference, the air vice marshal signed an agreement with Rolls Royce to explore collaborative propulsion-related activities. Altogether, 22 Australian companies have won $150 million worth of contracts so far, in the system development and demonstration phase of the JSF programme.