Hypersonic flight is flight through the atmosphere at speeds above Mach 5.5, or more than five times the speed of sound. 'The flight was the second in a series of up to ten planned flight experiments under a joint research program between DSTO and the US Air Force. 'The research being undertaken by DSTO and AFRL scientists is aimed at investigating fundamental air vehicle and propulsion technologies critical to the realisation of sustained hypersonic flight.

A Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) researcher says a Black Hawk strategic airlift project conducted as part of his deployment to Timor Leste as an operations analyst aiding the International Stabilisation Force, resulted in significant savings. I was tasked to mitigate a loss of information and knowledge, common to large organisations such as the ADF and particularly apparent during operations where theatre specific knowledge can haemorrhage during key staff transition, Dr Dawson says. In effect, DSTO operations analysts are on-location consultants to projects for which the ADF may require support, Dr Dawson says.

Greg Combet, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, today said that defence science and innovation were critical elements in our maritime security. Mr Combet also said that DSTO is critical to the success of the Future Submarine Project. For more information about the Maritime Defence Technology Symposium, the speakers and their biographies and abstracts, see the .

DSTO is working with project collaborators, the US Naval Surface Warfare Centre, US Naval Academy and CRC for Advanced Composite Structures, to advance a system of rapid, non-destructive inspection of large composite structures. Curvature discontinuity indicates a change in the composite structures stiffness, implying damage or a structural anomaly. The number of sensors that can be written on a single fibre is limited only by the length of the gratings and wavelength bandwidth of the light source available for interrogation, Dr Davis says.

A torque meter system is to be fitted to the propeller shafts of an Armidale-class vessel, as part of an innovative research program to enhance the performance of Australias naval fleet, by protecting it from biofouling. Lyn Fletcher, DSTO environmental research and biotechnology leader, says biofouling intensity is generally greater in northern-Australian waters and can impact a vessels operational performance. DSTO anticipates substantial fuel savings can be realised for the RAN by keeping its hulls free of fouling.

The Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC), jointly sponsored by the Defence Science & Technology Organisation and US Department of Defense, invited worldwide proposals to develop teams of fully autonomous robots for military operations. The shortlisted teams will be reduced to five in June 2010 when each of these five finalists will receive an additional $US50,000 to complete their projects for the Grand Challenge Event to be held in South Australia in November 2010. See the full for the list of shortlisted teams.

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) has helped deliver enhanced capability and extra capacity for Australia's satellite defence communications system, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, Greg Combet said today. Mr Combet was briefed on the new military satellite communications capability (MILSATCOM) during a visit to DSTO's Edinburgh laboratories in South Australia. 'The DSTO Study helped us achieve an ability to scale up our bandwidth requirements in coming years, an extra two years of capability life and extra satellite capacity.

The Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel & Science Greg Combet on Monday 7th of September read a statement in the House of Representatives, outlining the contribution that DSTO makes to Defence and national security. The statement can be read and heard (25 mins dur) through the attachments on this page.

'The Air Operations Simulation Centre in Melbourne is a unique Australian research facility, capable of accurately simulating the full scope of flight operations and combat scenarios for a variety of military aircraft,' Mr Combet said. 'The upgraded facility will enable DSTO to communicate live over secure networks with other defence facilities around the world, facilitating joint and coalition exercises on a larger scale. 'This connectivity is critical in building a highly-networked Australian Defence Force,' Mr Combet said.

'The Centre of Expertise will assist the Australian Defence Force to develop objective benchmarks for physical employment assessments to ensure soldiers have physical capacity commensurate with the performance of critical tasks, regardless of trade classifications, rank, age, or gender,' Mr Combet said. 'Physical Employment Standards allow soldiers physical capabilities to be assessed against the occupational requirements of their job, using a standardised set of test procedures. The Centre of Expertise in Physical Employment Standards (PES) is a partnership between the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the University of Wollongong.