Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price has officially opened Saab Australia’s Deployable Health Capability Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Melbourne.

Saab says the CoE will house experts across bio-medical engineering, major infrastructure, product development, and marketing, as well as integrated logistic support and training teams, and aims to develop and export deployable health solutions to military and humanitarian operations internationally.

“Saab globally has been delivering expert deployable health capability for over 30 years,” Saab Australia Managing Director, Andy Keough, said in a 25 March release. “With the capability technology transfer from Europe to Australia, the CoE will bring together the best of industry partnerships to ensure export of world leading capability out of Australia, to the world.

“Saab’s increased local development of deployable health solutions, in addition to the establishment of the CoE is a testament to our growing capability,” he added. “This coupled with our local supplier engagement to foster innovation and product development, will further increase sovereign industry capability and supply chain resilience.”

In a separate release, Minister Price said, “This centre’s highly skilled team of Saab experts, combined with industry and academia partnerships, will allow for the development and export of exceptional deployable health solutions to military and humanitarian operations globally.

“It will help strengthen deployable health capability through continual improvements to technology and equipment, and access to emerging technologies,” she added. “It will also help create supply chain resilience and aid the development of sovereign industry capability through engagement with local suppliers and partners.”

Saab also signed contracts with Aspen Medical for the delivery of clinical and operational medical training and with Global Defence Solutions (GDS) for hard and soft shelters, both of which will support the rollout of the Project JP 2060 Phase 3 deployable health capability for the ADF.

“These are important milestones for Saab, Aspen Medical and Global Defence Solutions, both for the successful delivery of the Deployable Health Capability and for the cooperation of Australian defence industry,” Minister Price said. “Saab is a strategic and long-term partner for the ADF and the Centre of Excellence presents an opportunity for further engagement and innovation with the ADF and Australian industry.”