Focused on the future of Australian industry

At the end of 2022, the Capability Plus participants gathered in Canberra to participate in a roundtable to discuss the successes of the program to date and the opportunities they would like to pursue in the future. The Small and Medium Enterprises also gathered to celebrate the major milestone of the program delivering more than 10,000 hours of training, professional development, and support for Australian SMEs across the country.

Capability Plus is a dedicated SME development program, launched in April 2021, that nurtures Australian SMEs through tailored activities, such as defence industry-specific training and mentoring. Activities include a focus on leadership development, defence contracting framework, engineering, program management, quality and global trade compliance, to name a few.

Raytheon Australia experts have dedicated their time to sharing knowledge and building capability through these collaborative efforts. Focused on building sovereign capabilities for Australia’s defence and creating opportunities for real work for SMEs by enhancing their capability to support defence programs.

“Our Capability Plus program is uniquely focused on helping local SMEs tap into the depth and breadth of expertise that we've invested heavily in developing here in Australia over the past two decades,” said Michael Ward, Raytheon Australia managing director.

“Through the more than 10,000 hours that we've already invested in this tailor-made program, we are pleased to be building a foundation of sovereign defence knowledge and know-how across the broader defence ecosystem – aimed at supporting the Australian Defence Force as they realise the full operational capability of their assets,” he said.

“Our Capability Plus program has also generated meaningful and sustained work for local industry,” he said. “As a trusted capability partner to the ADF, we have actively engaged with our SME partners on major defence programs, such as LAND 19 Phase7B, JP 9347 and the Collins class submarines – delivering tangible business benefits for these companies,” Ward said.

In addition to providing training and mentoring, the Capability Plus program also offers SMEs the opportunity to work alongside Raytheon Australia at the company’s state-of-the-art facilities. This approach has resulted in Capability Plus participant, Daronmont Technologies basing a team of employees at Raytheon Australia’s Centre for Joint Integration in Adelaide to work on the LAND 19 Phase 7B program.

“We have benefitted directly through access to Raytheon Australia business specialists for advice as well as professional development opportunities for engineers, program managers and emerging leaders in our business,” said Lee Stanley, Daronmont Technologies business development manager.

“In addition to these tangible Capability Plus outcomes, Daronmont has developed a closer, more transparent and strategic relationship with Raytheon Australia that is proving advantageous in a number of important Defence business opportunities we are teaming to pursue.”

This experience is echoed by Perth-based Calytrix Technologies, which provides specialised defence training and simulation capability, combining innovative training with world leading simulation systems that provides realistic, cost-effective training.

“Raytheon Australia’s Capability Plus program has been of significant benefit to Calytrix,” said Calytrix Technologies CEO Shawn Parr.

“The mentoring, support and opportunities presented as part of the program is a practical demonstration of a major defence prime supporting an Australian SME and their commitment to strategic Australian Industry Capability engagement,”

“We are pleased to continue our relationship with Raytheon Australia in 2023 and look forward to supporting their delivery of new capabilities to the ADF across a range of projects,” he said.

Capability Plus initially started with 10 SMEs from around the country and has increased to 12. Raytheon Australia will look to expand the program in 2023 to even more participants to collaborate with in the long term. These companies will not only work directly with Raytheon Australia but will have the opportunity to leverage access to Capability Plus alumni, with a purpose of generating business through mentoring, training, access to facilities and skills transfer.

Current Capability Plus participants include Daronmont Technologies, Calytrix, archTIS, Coherics, Agent Oriented Software (AOS), Frontline Manufacturing, PLEXSYS Australia, HEO Robotics, Jenkins Engineering Defence Systems (JEDS), REDARC, Silentium Defence and Willyama Services.