Credit: Royal Australian Navy
Brisbane-based telecommunications equipment maker EM Solutions has won a $ 150-million contract to upgrade the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) SATCOM systems.
The deal marks EM Solutions’ largest-ever customer contract to date and will see it hire 30 new people to support the seven-year project.
Appointed by the Commonwealth’s Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG), the contract will also provide up to a further $50 million in material and service purchases by CASG once the initial program deliverables are approved.
EM Solutions said it will continue to work with existing partners and develop new sovereign component and subsystem suppliers for its naval maritime SATCOM systems.
The goal of the contract is to modernise both the primary and alternate SATCOM for the existing RAN fleet using EM Solutions’ King Cobra and Cobra SATCOM terminals, which were developed through the Defence Innovation Hub.
The current contract will focus on RAN’s existing fleet of vessels.
This contract does not include ongoing support and sustainment services however, as EM Solutions won a contract with CASG in October last year to support the deployed Cobra systems and those previously acquired for new ship builds.
“Through a technology evolution program, EM Solutions aims to support the Navy in managing SATCOM technology evolution and obsolescence management continuously,” John Logan, EM Solutions’ vice president of programs, said.
“The trust shown by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in EM Solutions, transitioning from a component supplier to a prime contractor, is a credit to everyone who has contributed to our business to achieve this significant milestone, as with our previous contract negotiations with CASG.”
In May last year, EM Solutions was part of a consortium, including Vocus, Northrop Grumman, Inmarsat, L3 Harris, AECOM and Blacktree Technologies, to bid for the Australian Defence Force’s Satellite Communication System project JP9102.
The contract was later handed to Lockheed Martin, alongside a consortium including Linfox, DXC Technology, Conscia, Av-Comm, Calytrix Technologies, EM Solutions, Shoal Group, Clearbox Systems, STEM Punks and Ronson Gears.
