Air Force role in golden innovation

A digger’s ingenuity landed him a gold commendation, presented by VCDF AIRMSHL Robert Chipman at the Defence Capability Symposium in Canberra on March 26.

PTE Blaithe Gill-O’Connor, of 1st Armoured Regiment, developed a rapidly deployable vehicle camouflage to better hide from drones.

The camouflage prototype is a net system for armoured personnel carriers and was developed with assistance from Makerspace and the EDGY Air Force Innovation program.

PTE Gill-O’Connor wanted the net to be deployable by two soldiers in five minutes, compared with the 15 to 20 minutes it takes to deploy a traditional net.

“Think of it like those clamshell-design tents with the poles that fan open,” he said.

“It can also be taken down way quicker and doesn’t require you to try to strip off every single bit of natural cam.”

The system is mounted to an armed personnel carrier’s midpoint and uses thermal cam netting to better hide a vehicle’s heat signature from aerial threats.

PTE Gill-O’Connor taught himself design fundamentals and computer aided drawing (CAD) and sought advice from the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

He researched basic shapes, structures and their measurements to see what would support their own weight.

From there, PTE Gill-O’Connor moved to a Fusion 360 CAD system to start designing the base mount.

After some small-scale prototyping in wood to ensure the mechanism worked, he moved on to scrutinising different materials for construction.

All his work was done in the RAAF Base Edinburgh Army Makerspace, with practical innovation process support and funding from the EDGY Air Force Innovation program – which provided $1000 to purchase materials.

“I brought my initial design to them [EDGY] after I’d gone through a few stages. They really liked it and are really keen to see where it goes,” PTE Gill-O’Connor said.

“Army and Air Force both believe in bottom-up innovation, and if you come to them with an idea – and you’ve got a really good idea – they will enable you.”

EDGY program lead WGCDR Kylie Cimen said the project demonstrated successful Army Makerspace and EDGY collaboration.

“The trial at RAAF Edinburgh is an integrated approach, drawing on the strengths of the two programs to support a grassroots idea to become reality – all whilst developing Blaithe’s skills and confidence along the way,” she said.

PTE Gill-O’Connor said the commendation made him realise how much work he had actually done, and was extremely proud of what he achieved.

“It’s great to see not only the work I’ve done, but the people that helped me get to this point – to see their work pay off as well. I wish I could have had them all there with me when I received it,” he said.