‘Smart manufacturing’: Australian company Aquaterro to produce US defence force technology

‘Smart manufacturing’: Australian company to produce US defence force technology

March 17, 2014 – 10:18AM

Jared Lynch

A glimmer of hope is shining in Australia’s ambition to become a world leader in ‘smart manufacturing’, with a Melbourne company winning approval from US military leaders to produce defence force technology.

As Holden, Ford and Toyota withdraw from making cars in Australia, Aquaterro has joined Wilcox Industries – a US company that makes high end tactical equipment for soldiers and police officers – to build a factory that will create 100 jobs.

The plant will cost about $10 million and be Wilcox’s first overseas manufacturing site.

Aquaterro chief executive Graeme Bulte said it was a partnership born on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan where Australian troops noticed a wide technological gap between their equipment and that of their American allies.

Business boomed for Aquaterro, which distributes Wilcox’s products in Australia.

Mr Bulte said what was a niche market, probably supplying about ”a half a dozen guys, suddenly became thousands”.

”We had the Australian Defence Force come to us and to Wilcox and say … ‘we are side by side in the mountains with our American counterparts and we need to be able to keep pace with that and be interoperable with them at that same level… can you help’,” Mr Bulte said.

”The details of what we provided I can’t give you, but we turned around a problem that they’d had been dealing with for about a decade and fixed in inside of 60 days. Virtually every soldier deployed to Afghanistan from the point onwards was outfitted in that capability.”

Two years later, Wilcox has gained approval from the US Department of State to build an Australian factory and share closely guarded US military technology secrets.

As a result, much of the details surrounding the Aquaterro-Wilcox venture is classified. But Bulte said the products ranged from protective clothing, night vision mounts, to ”devices as big as an iPhone, which cost about $20,000”.’

He said Wilcox chose to build a new factory, which will Aquaterro will have 50 per cent ownership, rather than to continue to export equipment from the US because of the close relationship that was needed with customers.

”Wilcox found the best way to succeed in what they are doing in delivering equipment to soldiers… is to be always interacting with them and keeping them close to product development and manufacturing process.”

The two companies are scouting potential sites in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. Mr Bulte said all those state governments were eager in developing smart manufacturing. He hoped a ”stepping stone” factory would be completed mid this year, with a permanent base part of a five year plan.

He said the $10 million development cost was conservative, as was the 100 jobs.

Wilcox has 200 workers at its New Hampshire factory and was planning to create another 40 to 50 jobs there in coming months, Mr Bulte said.

”There is a great opportunity at the moment for industry in Australia, and its something we want to lead in.

”The experience, the designs and the capabilities that we are able to provide, its got to a point now where those companies like Wilcox have recognised the importance and the value in Australia.”