Heliocentric Technologies, Inc of Ottawa, Canada has adopted the engineering management systems provided by Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd to guide the systems engineering and project management for the development of Heliocentric's On-site Analyzer, a revolutionary system for base metal ore grading that uses nuclear technology to provide almost instantaneous assay without any sample preparation. The On-Site Analyzer is expected to make a significant impact on advanced exploration and mining operations Worldwide.

Aerospace Concepts' engineering management systems will ensure that the overall design provides a robust capability that can successfully operate from austere mining sites all over the World. This includes a software development framework to satisfy stringent mining industry quality control certification and ensuring the overall system design will meet international nuclear safety standards.

This work builds upon our already-demonstrated capability (refer below) to develop leading-edge, complex and software-intensive systems where human safety is paramount but within a cost-constrained environment.

Australia's Range Safety Template Toolkit (RSTT) was presented to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference and Exhibit in Honolulu, Hawaii. The conference paper provided a comprehensive update on RSTT development, current capabilities and future intentions.

RSTT is being developed by the Australian Defence Science & Technology Organisation in collaboration with Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd and other industry partners to support a diverse range of guided weapons in Australian service. RSTT now supports the Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) carried by the F/A-18 Hornet and will support the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) when it enters Australian service in the near future. Support for other guided weapons will be incorporated in due course.

RSTT capability has recently been expanded to support the DSTO-led HIFiRE joint US / Australia collaborative hypersonic flight research program involving a series of suborbital space launches and hypersonic controlled flight from Woomera, South Australia.

The Australian Department of Defence today issued a Worldwide solicitation to industry to inform a capability study of future Ground-Based Air and Missile Defence (GBAMD) systems and technologies. The study, being conducted in support of Defence Project LAND 19 Phase 7, is being managed by Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd.

GBAMD system suppliers, media outlets and other interested parties are invited to register interest in the capability study via support@concepts.aero. The study is due for completion in October 2008 with initial industry responses due by 1 September 2008. Note that the results of the study are intended for Department of Defence use only and will not be publically released. The solicitation is available for download.

The Australian Department of Defence today launched a Worldwide capability study for Ground-Based Air and Missile Defence (GBAMD). The study, being conducted in support of Defence Project LAND 19 Phase 7, is being managed by Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd. The study initial notification brief is available for download.

An information solicitation will be released around mid-year. This solicitation will seek industry responses outlining potential air defence system capabilities that may be considered under LAND 19 Phase 7. Information sought is expected to include indicative performance; systems integration; strategic and tactical mobility; supportability; manning and training; simulation; and indicative pricing. GBAMD system suppliers, media outlets and other interested parties are invited to register interest in the study via support@concepts.aero.

The Range Safety Template Toolkit (RSTT) being developed by the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation with the assistance and advice of Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd was promoted in a recent edition of Australian Defence Science (article reproduced courtesy of DSTO).

RSTT is being developed to quantify the risk to people and facilities from flight testing of air weapons such as the ASRAAM air-to-air missile and the JASSM cruise missile. With appropriate simulation model development, RSTT can be applied to in-service air weapons as well as those being planned and procured.

Aerospace Concepts' role in RSTT development over several years has been to provide systems engineering, assurance and project management advice to DSTO. More recently our role has expanded to include flight dynamics analysis and modelling of space launch vehicles and hypersonic test aircraft to produce range safety templates for the DSTO-led HIFiRE joint US / Australia collaborative hypersonic flight research program.

Aerospace Concepts, in collaboration with EarthSpace and PS Management Consultants, has been awarded a contract from the Defence Space Coordinating Office (DSCO) to deliver a series of training courses under the Defence Space Awareness Program (DSAP). The aim of the DSAP is to provide Defence military and civilian staff with a sound understanding of the space environment, capabilities and issues relevant to Defence needs.

The contract calls for the delivery of the 5-day Introduction to Space Concepts and Operations Course (ISCOC) and the 2-day Space Operations Overview Course (SOOC). These courses provide an overview of the space environment, space applications, orbital dynamics, space infrastructure, space strategy and law, dependencies and the limitations of space, as well as an awareness of Australian involvement and exposure to future space technologies. The first course will be delivered in early November.

Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd today became an associate of the Defence Rapid Prototyping, Development and Evaluation (RPDE) Program at a joining ceremony held at the RPDE office in Canberra.

RPDE is a collaborative venture between the Australian Department of Defence and industry. RPDE’s mission is to enhance ADF warfighting capacity through accelerated capability change in the NCW environment.

Aerospace Concepts, with a long history of leading edge research and consultancy in NCW and Defence capability development (see 22 June 2006 entry and others below), is keen to contribute our expertise to RPDE and looks forward to collaborating with the Department and other Defence industry companies in improving ADF combat capability.

DSTO today signed an agreement with Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd for commercialisation of the Systems Capability Assessment Model (Systems CAM) complex systems tool which was developed from work done with DSTO on Army firepower projects from 2001 onwards. This agreement will allow Aerospace Concepts to use the tool with clients in broader government, industry and overseas. In return, DSTO will earn royalties.

As noted in the DSTO Connections magazine, the Systems CAM tool is designed to support capability analysis, concept definition, specification development, compliance assessment and source selection (tender evaluation) activities using a structured approach to system modelling. The Systems CAM has already been successfully used in a range of applications within the Australian Department of Defence. More information on the Systems CAM can be found here.

Systems Engineering has a proven history of identifying end-user needs and translating these into workable system solutions. However, the scale, heterogeneity and resulting complexity of many contemporary systems and projects may suggest that Systems Engineeering as traditionally practiced is struggling to deliver satisfactory solutions.

The Principal of Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd, Shaun Wilson, today chaired the 'Beyond Traditional Systems Engineering' panel at the Systems Engineering / Test & Evaluation (SETE) Conference in Melbourne. This panel was conducted as part of a larger effort by the Systems Engineering Society of Australia to deal with the increasing complexity of Systems Engineering challenges. An article describing the panel has subsequently been published in the March 2007 edition of the SESA Newsletter.

Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd today delivered a half-day tutorial at the Systems Engineering / Test & Evaluation (SETE) Conference in Melbourne.

The tutorial, involving participants from a range of companies and government organisations, taught the application of Aerospace Concepts' Systems Capability Assessment Model (Systems CAM) complex systems tool to a range of problems including capability assessment, compliance evaluation and source selection. More information on the Systems CAM can be found here.

The Range Safety Template Toolkit (RSTT) being developed by the Australian Defence Science & Technology Organisation in collaboration with Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd and other companies was today presented to the Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference and Exhibit of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Keystone, Colorado, United States. The paper was presented on behalf of DSTO and Aerospace Concepts by Advatech Pacific, Inc., one of America's leading aerospace technology development and support companies.

The RSTT is being developed to support a diverse range of guided weapons in Australian service, including the ASRAAM within-visual-range air-to-air missile and the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM).

The Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI) today publically thanked Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd for contributing to the AUSROC 2.5 launch vehicle development project by donating drive motors for the liquid oxygen and kerosene valves that control propellant flow to the rocket engine. AUSROC 2.5 is the next step in the AUSROC program which began in the early 1990s and has seen three launches of liquid-fuelled vehicles. Aerospace Concepts has been a long-term corporate member of the institute and looks forward to further participation in AUSROC 2.5 development.

The Principal of Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd, Shaun Wilson, today presented at the Pan-TTCP Symposium on Complex Adaptive Systems for Defence held in Adelaide, South Australia, 17-21 July 2006. He presented on developing engineering approaches to deal with complex adaptive systems with emphasis on the differences between these approaches and traditional systems engineering. Shaun's presentation is available for download.

Dr Anne-Marie Grisogono of the Defence Science & Technology Organisation today presented a joint DSTO / Aerospace Concepts paper at the 2006 Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (2006 CCRTS) held in San Diego, California, 20-22 June 2006. The paper describes the long-running Network-Centric Warfare Prioritisation and Integration (NPI) assessment program being conducted in support of Australian Defence NCW capability development. The paper is also available for download.

The Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) today released Aerospace Concepts' review of Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) capability assessment approaches which was developed as part of DSTO's ongoing NCW research. The review encompasses both current NCW assessment approaches as well as areas otherwise unrelated to NCW that may potentially contribute to NCW assessment. The review is also available for download here (5.8 MB) along with an EndNote-format bibliographic database of NCW assessment references.

The Principal of Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd, Shaun Wilson, has today opened the Complexity in ICT Systems and Projects workshop at The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering at the University of Sydney. The Workshop was organised by the Systems Engineering Society of Australia (SESA) in association with The Warren Centre as part of the Australian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC 2006). Proceedings of the workshop will be published via the eScholarship process of Sydney University Press. Shaun's opening remarks, co-written with Chris Skinner, are available for download.

The Australian Department of Defence today launched a Worldwide market technology survey for Terminal Attack Control (TAC) technologies and products. The survey, being conducted in support of Defence's Project LAND 146, is being managed by Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd. The survey solicitation brief is available for download.

The Australian Department of Defence today launched a Worldwide market technology survey for Combat Identification technologies and products. The survey, being conducted in support of Defence's Project LAND 146, is being managed by Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd. The survey solicitation brief is available for download.

Cameron Boyd, our lead researcher and consultant on Combat Identification technologies, today delivered a research paper on this subject at the IEEE International Region 10 Conference in Melbourne. Known as Tencon '05 (www.tencon2005.org), this conference caters for a broad range of technology interests for IEEE Region 10 covering Pakistan to New Zealand and Australia to China and Korea.

Dr Michael Jokic of the Defence Science & Technology Organisation today announced that DSTO, in collaboration with Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd and other companies, is developing a guided weapon safety analysis capability to support Australian Defence operations into the 21st Century. Dr Jokic was delivering a paper at the Systems Engineering / Test & Evaluation (SETE) Conference in Brisbane.

Cameron Boyd, one of our key NCW research team members, has today delivered a paper on comparing approaches to NCW assessment. This paper, derived from Aerospace Concepts' collaborative research with the Defence Science & Technology Organisation, is an important foundation element in our NCW Prioritisation and Implementation (NPI) work for the Defence NCW Program Office. Cameron was speaking at the Systems Engineering / Test & Evaluation (SETE) Conference in Brisbane.

The Principal of Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd, Shaun Wilson, has spoken at an international conference in Washington, DC about technology for Combat Identification. His presentation, covered more than 25 potential Combat Identification technologies.

Royal Australian Air Force Project AIR 5418 has chosen Systems CAM to assist in the selection of a long-range cruise missile. The Systems CAM software will be used to provide a structured approach to evaluating the detailed technical and operational aspects of tender responses.

Aerospace Concepts delivers our Systems CAM software to the Defence Science and Technology Organisation and the Defence Capability Development Group to support assessment of the Project LAND 40-2 market technology survey initial round results.

Aerospace Concepts delivers version 1.0 of our Systems CAM software to the Defence Materiel Organisation to support the acquisition of a new artillery system for the Australian Army under Project LAND 17.

The associated database contains information collected and analyses made over three years of study by the Defence Department and Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd.

Aerospace Concepts' new website goes live. Thanks to Glen Johnson and the staff of Future Medium in Hobart.