SA radar company eyes European expansion
An Adelaide radar technology company is announcing global expansion plans as its co-founder says SA is rapidly becoming a leading national defence hub.
Gepps Cross-based defence company Silentium Defence is looking to expand its presence in Europe and the United States as its workforce nudges over more than 100 employees.
Silentium Defence executive director of global expansion Simon Palumbo said the company was seeing growing demand for its products that mainly focus on passive radar technology, along with space domain awareness.
According to Palumbo, space domain awareness includes tracking objects in low Earth orbit, which can help avoid flying objects colliding, for example.
Among Silentium’s products is Maverick M8, a covert, passive radar that allows 360-degree threat detection on land, at sea or in the air, while Maverick Excalibur is a relocatable, 3D passive radar system providing comprehensive air and surface surveillance.
Silentium Defence was co-founded by Palumbo and current CEO James Palmer 10 years ago, with the pair having previously worked together at the Defence Science and Technology Group.
Palumbo said that Silentium was previously focused on Australia, but it has since moved into the US, with plans to also expand the company’s presence in Europe.
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“We’re looking to the Five Eyes nations – when you talk defence, that’s where we focus, but the European expansion is key in our strategy,” he said.
Palumbo said the market size in the US and Europe made them attractive for expansion.
“Defence in the US is the biggest market in the world, and I think, from our point of view, it gives us the most touch points with our customers and potential customers that we can feed back into our products,” he said.
“Similarly with European nations, as well as the UK, they’re in a similar sort of vein – so, there’s a larger mass there, and therefore, a larger investment.
“As a whole, once you bring all those nations together, that is something that is of interest to us to grow our organisation”.
Palumbo, who recently returned after two years in the United States, said the company had been completing research for the defence industry for about a decade and saw the benefits of passive radars.
“We were seeing that it was making a difference to people and the end users, and it was a technology that was going to save lives,” he said.
Palumbo said that passive radars are different to traditional radars because they detect objects such as drones using existing transmission sources, including television and radio.
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“We’re completely covert – no one knows where we are or what we’re doing. So, in a defence context, you can see that’s quite advantageous,” he said.
Silentium is involved in all stages of developing the technology, he said, from the initial designs to construction and selling the product.
The company’s customer base includes both the defence, government and commercial sectors, he said.
Asked about the current state of the defence industry in South Australia, Palumbo said SA was quickly becoming one of the country’s leading defence and space hubs and currently employs more than 14,000 people.
“When you’ve got companies like Silentium Defence that are building sovereign capability, exporting to global markets and creating lots of jobs because of that, we’re seeing a lot of good outcomes for the state,” he said, adding that Silentium had recently reached a milestone of 100 employees.
Palumbo said the company had handed out individualised coins to each of its employees to mark the occasion.
“I think as a founder of a company and putting the blood, sweat and tears into a company and seeing the growth … it’s a really good feeling as a founder,” he said.
Defence and Space Industries Minister Chris Picton said that the defence industry generates more than $2 billion in economic activity every year, “with companies like Silentium Defence creating more opportunities for engineers and technology specialists in our state”.
“I would like to congratulate Silentium Defence on its growth and look forward to seeing how the company can further boost our sovereign capability with its passive radar systems,” he said.
Asked where he sees the company going in the next 10 years, Palumbo said he anticipates a growth in the number of products Silentium makes and its customer base.
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