(L-R) Vice President SRC Aus, Darren Robertson; Commander Air Warfare Centre, AIRCDRE Phil Gordon; Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne, Assistant Defence Minister, Senator David Fawcett; and SRC Aus Adelaide Operations Manager, James Groessler at the SRC Aus opening at Mawson Lakes. (SRC Aus)

SRC Australia has opened a new office at Mawson Lakes in Adelaide, as it develops next-generation electronic warfare payloads for manned and unmanned systems.

The office, opened by Defence Minister Christopher Pyne and Assistant defence Minister Senator David Fawcett, is the company’s second in Australia, and will allow SRC to expand its role in the development of electronic warfare systems and data sets for the ADF’s military systems.

“SRC Australia are experts in developing next generation electronic warfare solutions for the ADF and its allies,” Minister Pyne said in a statement. “The company plays a vital role in delivering its ‘Ghosthawk’ mission support data sets for Australia’s F-35As.”

“It is just over a year ago since I opened the Canberra office of SRC Australia – and it is a pleasure to today open the second Australian office of this fast-growing company.”

SRC is investing over $12 million in developing the ‘Lyrebird’ electronic warfare payload for next-generation training purposes, but which may also have an operational application for advanced concepts such as the Australian-designed and developed unmanned Boeing Airpower Teaming System, or ‘Loyal Wingman’ which was unveiled at the recent Avalon Airshow.

“The electronics package – named Lyrebird in Australia and ‘Mockingbird’ in the United States – allows the UAV to look like an adversary to replicate the threats faced in modern day warfare,” Minister Pyne said. “The Lyrebird program and related investments will provide an additional 15 jobs for SRC Australia in Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra over the next two years.”

“This is another example of the value of the Coalition Government investing in innovative, future leaning initiatives such as the Loyal Wingman – which is expected to create around 100 new high-technology Australian jobs in the engineering and design phase alone.”

The Ghosthawk tool is a platform-agnostic system that allows the ADF to better manage intelligence data, and to convert it into the appropriate format for the various data generation systems and threat libraries used by the F-35 and other capabilities.

SRC will develop the Lyrebird EW payload which may have an operational application on Boeing’s Airpower Teaming System, or ‘Loyal Wingman’ unmanned concept. (ANDREW MCLAUGHLIN)