7 projects from last years round 13 have been awarded $13m funding under the Australian Defence –  CTD Program .   Round 14 Closes on the 24th of July – see Treadstone Blog posting – http://www.treadstone.com.au/?p=386

The media release reports:

“I congratulate the seven companies for their innovative proposals which will be developed under the Capability & Technology Demonstrator (CTD) Program managed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation,” Mr Combet said.

“These projects are a combination of brand-new technologies and novel applications for existing technologies. It is research like this that helps our ADF maintain their capability edge.”

One of the proposed technologies from Sydney company Blue Glue, was demonstrated at the Sydney Aquarium with a wrist-mounted computer that monitors a diver’s vital signs from the surface to enhance safety during operations.

Other successful proposals include:

• Software to streamline information flow between old and new command and control systems (Saab Systems);
• Technology to improve Defence’s geospatial information storage capability (SMS Defence Solutions);
• Enhanced surveillance technology for unmanned aerial vehicles (BAE Systems);
• A high-power, low frequency underwater acoustic system for minesweeping (Thales Australia);
• A secure hard drive for protection and movement of classified data (Secure Systems); and
• A system to detect potential threats from moving and static ground vehicles (Sentient Vision Systems)

“The selected proposals represent a wide variety of industry expertise from both small to medium sized enterprises and established Defence contractors,” Mr Combet said.

The CTD Program supports Australian industry to demonstrate new technologies that contribute to Defence capability. The projects announced today have been allocated funding of $13 million.

Further information on the seven new CTD projects is available at http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/ctd13/