Space and Military technology in safe hands

Imagine a laser beam so powerful and precise that it could push space debris the size of a pin head out of the path of a satellite. Or a war-zone hotshot being defended by a remote controlled system, mitigating the risk of casualties. While these fictitious ‘star wars’ settings belong in a Hollywood movie, the concepts make good business sense for Canberra-based business Optic Electro Systems (EOS). Their laser technology products are hot property and have the attention of the biggest players in the global space and military sectors.

An unremarkable brown brick building in Griffith is home to EOS, a quarter of a billion dollar success story and a world leader in the niche field of laser imagery technology. While the nearby dirt car park belies their success, the building interior is sleek, polished and minimalist, befitting a company whose key business partners include NASA and the U.S. Military.

The company is split into a space and military division, with offices in the United States and Europe. Although it began in more humble surroundings, in the industrial sector in Queanbeyan. EOS Group General Manager Ron Thompson says Queanbeyan’s appeal was the cheap rent and handy facilities, but the choice of location was also strategic. “No-one in Australia, let alone Washington, knows where Queanbeyan is”, says Mr Thompson.  The close proximity to Canberra means an assimilation with funding by an arm of the Federal Government.

The company was created in 1986 by current CEO, Dr Ben Greene. At the time, the United States President Ronald Reagan was espousing a new defence initiative, known as 'star wars'.  One of the roles of this initiative involved shooting down missiles in space. The Australian Government was opposed to this application of technology and abandoned its support.

“Space debris is the reason our Government of the day moved away from supporting star wars”, Mr Thompson explains. Dr Greene was a Commonwealth employee, working in aerospace, and saw a unique opportunity to take the technology that had been created in the government environment and turn it into a private enterprise. He predicted space debris would pose a big problem in the future.

Twenty years on, while experts around the globe are challenged by the environmental degradation on earth, EOS are confronting the issue in space. “We are working hand over fist to correct the mess in space”, says Mr Thompson. The company’s technology will enable them to locate space debris, catalogue it and, in the long term, to demonstrate the ability to move debris out of its current orbit and into the earth’s atmosphere where it will burn up.

In a star wars analogy, Mr Thompson explains, “the laser will give a glancing blow; it’s like pushing someone in the shoulder, it pushes you off track. You don’t need to use a lot of energy”.

It is a very advanced and costly program, but one EOS say is necessary. “We have environmentally screwed space”, Mr Thompson said. referring to the estimated 30 million pieces of man made debris that NASA say are orbiting earth, ranging from 1 millimetre to metres in size.

And the recently exploding Chinese satellite created an estimated 2 million pieces. “Space is now more valuable real estate than anything on earth. And unless we can do something about it (debris), then the demise of earth will only happen quicker”, says Mr Thompson.

Today, the approval process to launch a satellite is stricter than the cold war days. “Every satellite has to be launched into a particular orbit and there are treaties that impact, affect and control all of space; we all work in a very controlled environment”, says Mr Thompson. He believes that the data will invariably be of more interest to the insurance industry, as a risk mitigate, than it might be to other nations.

The military division of EOS is also heavily involved in global technological developments. Last year, the company earned wide recognition after winning a contract to supply the Australian Army with forty-four remote control weapon systems to support Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The product, called CROWS (Common Remote Operated Weapon Station) allows the operator to locate and identify the enemy and fire the weapon from a protected environment, not unlike a playstation.

The ADF wanted them because the U.S. had them and gave rave reviews. “They are so common with the US, there is commonality of operational training. They have the ability to understand the product of the other party quite well”, said Mr Thompson.

The company’s relations with the U.S. military began when the U.S. discovered EOS’ weapon systems research and wanted to test it in Iraq. “The U.S. troop carriers were armour plated and protected from underground explosion, but when they had people jumping out from behind a tree with a granade launcher, they had no defence mechanism for protecting themselves”, says Mr Thompson, and adds, “mobile granade launchers are now a real threat to people in conflict zones as they can be hoisted over the shoulder”.

EOS have designed and will soon test an anti-granade launcher weapon system. As the enemy gets smarter, the defence mechanisms need to be just as clever to counteract. And EOS knows, as well as any Government, that maintaining credibility with the customer means keeping troops out of harms way.

If the military world stopped fighting tomorrow, the world’s money would be focused again on space research, and EOS has that side of the game covered. “Our core technology is lasers and they are applied in two environments where they will always be in demand, space and military, although one maybe more so than the other”, Mr Thompson said.

While EOS compete for contracts with U.S. technology giants, part of the company’s appeal is its nimbleness. “We can change quickly to suit the end users needs, and we are usually aware of the need before they know that they have one”, says Mr Thompson.

Last year, EOS was recognised by the ACT Government as the Top Exporter of the Year, for their unique expertise in defence technology. “Not only has the company contributed millions of export dollars to the ACT economy, but through its Washington office it has also supported other Canberra businesses looking to break into the American market,” Chief Minister John Stanhope said. The future and security of international space and military technology is in safe hands.

For more information on Electro Optic Systems (EOS) go to http://www.eos-aus.com/.