How do Space Services Enable Warfighting in the Land Domain
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This panel discussion will address the role of space capability and space services in enabling warfighting in the Land Domain. The panel will include perspectives from the Australian Army, the Space Industry Association of Australia and Australian space industry primes, for a cross sector discussion of the criticality of the space domain to the contemporary land domain. Topics to be addressed include the role of space technology in protecting and supporting warfighting in the land domain, as well as the role of space technology in supporting strategic communications and providing intelligence.
SPEAKERS
Brigadier Kurt Brown CSC
Australian Army
Brigadier Kurt Brown grew up in the country New South Wales town of Dubbo. He attended the Australian Defence Force Academy and Royal Military College before graduating into the Royal Australian Corps of Signals. He is the current Director General Systems and Integration within Army Headquarters.
Brigadier Brown has had a diverse range of appointments throughout his career ranging from command, staff and joint, to inter-agency roles. Career highlights include command of the 7th Combat Signal Regiment, appointment as the Australian Defence Adviser to Canada and on exchange with the United States 11th Signal Brigade.
Operationally, Brigadier Brown has served on multiple tours to Afghanistan, Iraq and Timor Leste. He was the Officer Commanding Afghanistan Signal Squadron and the Officer Commanding the Signal Element in Timor Leste. Brigadier Brown was a lead planner in the Multi-National Corp-Iraq communications plan whilst posted as the Engineering Officer for the United States 11th Signal Brigade.
Academically, Brigadier Brown is a graduate from the University of New South Wales Master of Electrical Engineering program. He is a graduate of the Defence Strategic Studies Course and Australian Command and Staff College, attaining a Master of Military Studies from the Australian National University. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Executive Program on Leadership and Innovation. Brigadier Brown is currently undertaking a doctorate on the convergence of physical and electronic manoeuvre on the battlespace.
Brigadier Brown has a keen interest in most sports, particularly Australian Rules football being a passionate St Kilda supporter, and outdoor pursuits such as skiing and running. He is married and has two children.
Jeremy Hallett
Executive Chairman
Space Industry Association of Australia
Jeremy is an experienced business leader within the space industry in Australia and internationally. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of Av-Comm Space & Defence, APAC’s leading ground segment provider for space missions, and DroneShield, an ASX listed company leading the world in technology for the detection and defeat of autonomous systems. He also provides expert advice to other Australian space organisations including the Australian Space Agency.
In addition, Jeremy is an angel investor, including being an investor and mentor in the Moonshot Space Accelerator - Australia’s only space accelerator programme that is helping to grow a space-enabled economy. Further, he is a mentor at the National Space Industry Hub run by Cicada Innovations helping space startups supercharged their commercialization journey. Previously, Jeremy was CEO and Managing Director at Clearbox systems, one of Australia's longest standing and most successful defence and space businesses. In space, Clearbox Systems has a particular emphasis on satellite communications and Space Domain Awareness. Clearbox’s solutions have been deployed extensively in Australia and internationally and are renowned for their technology, dependability of delivery and responsiveness to emerging requirements. While leading Clearbox Systems Jeremy helped found Quasar Satellite Technologies, a CSIRO spin-out company, alongside venture capital an industry founders. Quasar is enabling a new future for space communications by commercialising world-beating phased array technology from CSIRO. Jeremy is passionate about Australia’s space industry and believes in the ability of Australia’s space industry to provide world-leading technology and services. He is enthusiastic advocate for Australia space industry and has deep technical, commercial and operational knowledge in key sectors where Australian space industry has a competitive advantage.
Nicole Seils
Manager Government Relations and Legislative Affairs
Northrop Grumman Australia
Nicole is an experienced senior executive with more than two and a half decades of prolific activity in the public and private sector in both Australia and the USA. She has depth in specialty areas such as deep-tech, quantum, cyber, defence and space. Nicole brings a wealth of legal, policy and reform campaign expertise.
Some of the notable senior and executive positions Nicole has held are: Head of Government Relations, Lockheed Martin Australia & New Zealand; Chief of Staff and Senior policy advisor to a variety of senior government Cabinet Ministers; Deputy Director-General, Innovation at ACT Health; Co-Chair and Founder of the Women in Defence and Security Network based at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; Non-Executive Director roles for East Coast Traffic Control (logistics) and Graham Lusty Trailers (advanced manufacturing); and Director on the Australian Rail Track Corporation and Lockheed Martin Partnership Board (relating to technology for train cargo logistics and safe track spacing of trains).
Nicole was also involved in the ASX listed Private Equity company TeamInvest Private Group and sat on their Board level Risk and Compliance Committee, and Investment Committee. She was the Chair of their former Governance Committee and Member of the Allocations Committee for TeamInvest Diversified Growth Fund a private equity arm. Nicole is a longstanding member of the philanthropic group NEXUS.org and held leadership membership on the Organisations Australian Committee for five years (2017-2021). She was the Chair of the NEXUS Australia COVID-19 Action Team in 2020 as well as being a founding member of the New York based NEXUS Global, Space Braintrust, which is currently working closely with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs on the new Space Economy agenda.
Nicole is a credentialed graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, has dual degrees in Law and Commerce and is an admitted Legal Practitioner. She also completed an Internship in the US Senate in 2007, in the Office of Senior lawmaker Senator Christopher J. Dodd (CT-Dem), were she worked on the Foreign Relations Committee and Environmental Reforms agenda. Her legal focus is primarily on constitutional, contract, commercial and intellectual property law, with a growing interest in space law. In 2022, Nicole completed to a HD standard the Competitive Strategy and Innovation course at the London School of Economics. Nicole is also current Chair of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) - Space Committee.
A lifelong ‘policy wonk’, Nicole is a passionate leader and advocate for Australian innovation and works consistently in support of building Australia’s competitive edge into beneficial, economy-wide export opportunities and sustained growth in her lifetime of service of the continuance and resilience of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and opportunity creation for all Australians to continue to prosper.
Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defence and cyberspace to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 97,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.
Philip Citowicki
Strategy & Business Development Lead for Space
Lockheed Martin Australia
Philip Citowicki is the Strategy & Business Development Lead for Space at Lockheed Martin Australia. He was previously the Executive Officer of the Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA). Philip was previously employed as an adviser to Australia’s Foreign Minister and as the Personal Political Aide to Australia’s High Commissioner in the United Kingdom.
An acknowledged thought leader in the public and foreign policy space, Philip has contributed to and featured in respected tier one publications, television programs, and academic institutions. He was a Non-Resident Fellow with US think tank Pacific Forum and is a regular participant in global seminars and development courses hosted by international organizations and government agencies including the U.S. State Department, Australian American Leadership Dialogue, the Hoover Institute and more. Philip maintains comprehensive networks in federal and state politics, the public service, and industry. He has a track record of successful policy development, robust advocacy to government, and building industry relationships.
Sam Kirkwood
Research and Development Engineer
HEO
Sam graduated from UNSW in 2021 with a double degree in physics and computer science. She began her career at HEO as a graduate research engineer, quickly gaining valuable experience in Australia's space industry and the dynamic environment of a startup. Sam has enjoyed contributing to innovative research projects at HEO, helping shape the future of commercial non-Earth imagery.
In her current role as a Research and Development Engineer, Sam is focused on analysing non-Earth imagery to derive valuable data for HEO's customers and developing new methods to gain insights from this data. She is involved in creating cutting-edge software tools that enhance our understanding of satellites and other space objects such as attitude estimation. Additionally, Sam has honed skills in 3D modelling and data analysis.
Looking ahead, Sam aims to deepen her expertise in remote sensing and explore the numerous applications of this data. She is passionate about contributing to projects that promote space sustainability, as she believes in the importance of taking care of our planet and the space surrounding it.
Abhineet Jain
Heads the Sales & Business Development for Asia Pacific
Blacksky
Abhineet Jain, Heads the Sales & Business Development for Asia Pacific at Blacksky and is based in Singapore. Abhineet has been active in the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Industry for the last 28 years and has served various roles in technical, sales and business development. Before joining Blacksky, he was APAC lead for the Enterprise Global Business Development at Maxar. He has done his Post Graduate Research in the field of Climate Change and Forest Productivity from Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), DehraDun, Department of Space, India. Forestry, Environment and Disaster Management are among his favourite areas where he has been promoting the use of Remote Sensing.
BlackSky is a leading provider of real-time geospatial intelligence, satellite imagery and related data analytic products, services, and mission systems. We monitor activities and facilities worldwide by harnessing the world’s emerging sensor networks and by leveraging our own constellation of small optical imaging satellites (“smallsats”). Since 2014, BlackSky has been processing millions of observations from our own smallsat constellation, as well as a variety of space, Internet of Things (IoT), and terrestrial based sensors and data feeds.
Hosted by Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA)
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