Top-secret military tech puts Australia on verge of record deal
Australia is on the brink of its biggest-ever defence export contract, with the British government to buy a Canberra-built radar considered the best in the world.
Industry insiders have told 9News that the deal with phased array radar company CEA Technologies would be worth more than $10 billion once fully implemented.
Australia is on the verge of a $10 billion deal to provide the UK with CEA Technologies radar equipment. 9News
British Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard visited the company’s Canberra headquarters for the signing of a statement of intent, which will allow the British defence sector to analyse how to embed the radar on its warships and army vehicles.
British company QinetQ will play a central role in testing, assuring and integrating the CEA radar with the UK military’s various defence platforms.
The technology behind CEA radars’ extraordinary power is top secret, but their precision is attributed to the thousands of pulses emitted simultaneously across the radar panels.
CEA radars feature on all eight Anzac Class frigates and the Australian Army has several mobile radar systems to support air defence capability.
It also integrates with United States weapon control systems to help guide missile launchers.
“This radar can see smaller things further away than most radars in the world, if not all of them,” Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy told 9News.
“Not only is it more powerful and more effective, it’s smaller, which means you can put them on more assets, whether it’s naval vessels, a trailer equipping the army, or air force bases.
“This deal, if it’s concluded, will be the biggest export deal in the history of Australia in terms of defence exports. So the potential is huge.”
Newly installed UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has made defence spending one of his top priorities.
Luke Pollard said his job was to “ready to deter any aggression”.
Luke Pollard says the CEA radar is one of the “very best in the world”. 9News
“We know that the CEA radar is one of the very best in the world, we know it has advantages that would bring real operational advantage to UK fighting forces,” Pollard said.
“And as we are increasingly moving to war-fighting readiness, I want to see the very best technology put on the front line, and that means looking far and wide to find it.
“The ability to detect more objects, smaller objects faster, will give our war-fighters an edge in an increasingly dangerous world.”
The radar is the brainchild of brilliant inventor Ian Croser, a former naval officer who built CEA from scratch over four decades.
CEA founder Ian Croser avoids the spotlight, but has been hailed as a “dead-set genius” by the federal government. 9News
The company now employs more than 800 people across four states and territories.
Croser is notoriously shy and avoids the spotlight, but Conroy paid tribute to the “dead-set genius”.
“Ian’s a national treasure, a man who, as a naval engineer, decided he could do a better job than the radars he was working on,” Conroy said.
“So he went and invented one, and over decades he has perfected this technology.
“Ian is a dead-set genius, and the whole nation should be very grateful for his contribution.”
In 2023, the federal government made the extraordinary decision to nationalise CEA to ensure it remains in Australian hands.
Taxpayers own 72 per cent of the company, and Croser owns the rest.
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