C4 EDGE to develop an Australian battlegroup and below battlefield command system demonstrator

By Kym Bergmann, Editor, APDR (February 2021)
Featuring commentary from Matt Jones, C4I General Manager of EOS Defence Systems

“There are plenty of good news stories around about Australian industry, but very few with the enormous potential of the C4 EDGE consortium* that has been contracted by Army to deliver a sovereign tactical command, control and communications systems for battlegroup and below. Led by Canberra-based EOS Defence Systems, the company was awarded a $31.4 million dollar contract in December to have a demonstration system available by the end of 2021. This follows an earlier investment by Defence of $4.2 million in June to fund the Phase 1 mobilisation of the group, defence the architecture and map out the required accreditation processes.”

“According to Matt Jones, EOS DS C4I General Manager, the program will utilise Australian design, production, workforce, intellectual property and supply chains in the development and demonstration of this capability. Most of the companies are in the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) category. As well as receiving money from Defence, all companies are also contributing to the effort themselves as part of an effort to showcase their capabilities. This means that the Australian industry financial contribution to the development is likely to be at least equal to that being made by Defence.

Mr Jones says the genesis of the activity came about as a result of an appeal by the Australian Army at the 2019 Canberra MilCiS conference for expressions of interest from companies interested in developing a sovereign C4 system. EOS DS took the lead – and had no difficulty in quickly identifying a number of potential participants. As a result, the company made an unsolicited proposal to Defence – and progress since then has been very rapid.”

*C4 EDGE (Command, Control, Communications and Computing Evolutionary Digital Ground Environment) consortium consists of:

EOS Defence Systems Pty Limited
3ME Technology Pty Ltd
Acacia Systems Pty Limited
Barrett Communications Pty Ltd
CBG Systems Pty Ltd
CIStech Solutions Pty Ltd
Codan Limited
EM Solutions Pty Ltd
Etherstack Pty Ltd
Standard Communications Pty Ltd (Trading As GME)
Insitec MIS Systems Pty Ltd
Kord Defence Pty Ltd
Outlander Solutions Pty Ltd
Penten Pty Ltd
Skykraft Pty Ltd
Solinnov Pty Ltd
Tectonica Australia Pty Ltd
Xtek Limited