Innovaero and NIOA have announced an all-Australian partnership to cooperate on the development and manufacture of a range of modular warheads and launch systems for loitering munitions.

The two Australian-owned and operated companies say their strategic collaboration to design, test and manufacture warheads, launch boosters, and tube launched systems will build sovereign capability, strengthen national resilience and create advanced manufacturing jobs across multiple states.

“Building sovereign capability is central to our strategy,” said Mike von Bertouch, Managing Director of Innovaero.

“Together with NIOA, we will transfer advanced know-how, create high-value local jobs, and strengthen Australia’s security supply chain.”

NIOA Group CEO Rob Nioa said: “Innovaero has been a fantastic success story in building sovereign capability.

“Combining Innovaero’s systems engineering and Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) design expertise with NIOA’s energetic materials design and manufacturing capabilities will give Australia a unique opportunity to onshore key technologies safely and responsibly and improve long-range strike options for the ADF and our allies and partners such as the New Zealand Defence Force.”

The Innovaero-NIOA partnership reflects the immediacy of lessons learned from contemporary global conflicts, and the impactful role of cost effective, mass-produced armed drones that can be manufactured from a sovereign industrial base.

The partnership will deliver cost-effective precision loitering munitions to strengthen the ADF’s strike capabilities, and both the reach and lethality of deployed forces.

The program will proceed through staged design, qualification and production readiness phases under full Australian control and in compliance with Defence export-control and safety frameworks.

NIOA Group CEO Rob Nioa and Innovaero Managing Director Mike von Bertouch, pictured at last year’s Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition in Sydney. The two companies have announced a partnership to produce warheads and launch systems for loitering munitions.