Leonardo, through the subsidiary Selex ES Australia Pty Ltd, will open a new site in Australia. The headquarters, which will be located in the western part of the country, is further evidence of Leonardo's commitment to investing and strengthening its industrial presence in Australia, where the company is already present in Melbourne, Victoria, and in Nowra in New Wales South. Further expansion is expected in the next 18 months.
The announcement was made at the Pacific 2017 international maritime fair, where Leonardo is present with its own exhibition space at the 4F10 stand.
The new headquarters is located in Rockingham, south of Perth, and will be a regional center dedicated to engineering, integration, installation and assistance. The proximity to the shipyards of Hendersen and Garden Island will allow Leonardo to effectively oversee the naval programs in progress. It will also facilitate the collaboration with the companies present in Western Australia and will allow to build strong specialist skills, in particular in defense electronics, complementary to the consolidated shipbuilding skills in the area.
The Rockingham site will also play a key role in the SEA1442 Phase 4 naval program. As part of the project, Leonardo will provide an integrated suite of state-of-the-art communication systems for updating and modernizing Australian ANZAC frigates. The solution includes external communications in radio frequency and internal tactical communications, a high-speed "line of sight" system and innovative communications management software. Updating these capabilities will lay the foundation for a reference naval architecture for the future tactical communications of the Royal Australian Navy and at the same time will also help to digitize and "network" the Australian Armed Forces in the maritime environment.
"The new headquarters is the sign of Leonardo's commitment in Australia where the company has been present since 1885, starting from the supply of torpedoes for the Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia Navies. During this long period, Leonardo built a "Strong relationship with the country, providing solutions, products and services for both the military and civil sectors. We are proud of what we have done so far and we want to continue pursuing our commitment", commented Michael Lenton, Executive Chairman of Selex ES Australia "We have made considerable efforts over the past year to significantly increase our capacity to support local and strengthen the national supply chain. Leonardo was able to take up the recent challenges in the naval sector. We are now determined to demonstrate, on the one hand, that investments in skills and people have been the right choice, on the other hand, that the transfer of technology to the country is an expectation for us or priority, beyond future opportunities in shipping ".
