#49 Sovereign Firepower: Building Australia's Munitions Capability | Jason Murray - Part 2
Intelligence; Optimised PodcastShow Notes
Part 2 moves from problem to delivery. Jason Murray stay on counter-UAS and show how to field effects at pace - starting with Rooster, a physics-based round that lifts terminal effect on small drones but cuts down-range lethality. Rooster has been proved to TRL-6 and is entering staged TRL-7 work. It’s designed for in-service weapons and remote weapon stations, with fragment-on-demand 7.62 NATO settings and engagement out to ~800 m from RWS - useful around critical infrastructure, ports and urban areas where what goes up must not come down as a lethal threat.
The lab builds it, but people make it real. We cover a veterans-first workforce, and the Aimpoint partnership to “grow your own” skills - an ASQA-approved munitions/EO apprenticeship, an armourer pathway through to Master Armourer, and a ballistics course in development. We outline how a multi-user, privately owned defence precinct can speed load-and-assembly work (e.g., Murray Bridge) and give SMEs building uncrewed platforms a munitions design partner they can actually access.
Certification and policy matter. Australia certifies to NATO MOPI, not NATO; we propose an Indo-Pacific certification hub to avoid EU/US bottlenecks and fast-track interoperability. We also call for a DIU-style unit to back early-stage defence tech through TRL-7, plus closer government–industry embeds. COVID showed what happens when verification and supply lag reality; AUKUS Pillar 2 and universities should feed practical skills, not just papers.
What to do now: ✔️Back TRL-7 trials that lead to fielding, not just reports. ✔️ Stand up precincts that let SMEs and primes integrate, test and ship. ✔️ Fund training pathways that put veterans into armoury and ballistic roles. ✔️ Build an Indo-Pacific certification hub so units can train with what they’ll deploy.
Rooster is being launched to international buyers at DSEI London, alongside other lines (EOD disruptors; 12-gauge vehicle interdiction). The window for readiness is tight. Move now so teams can train, certify and protect what matters.
Find deeper briefs inside Vaxa Bureau.
More from Intelligence; Optimised Podcast
Picture a cable roughly the diameter of a garden hose lying on the ocean floor, 3,500 metres down. It carries 95% of international data traffic, including classified military communications, financial transactions, and the digital nervous system of the Second Island Chain. Now consider this: a recent CSIS report confirms that China has already demonstrated the capability to sever these cables at extreme depths silently and with plausible deniability.
Australia produces some of the cleanest, highest-quality food on the planet. But less than two percent of global venture capital flows into agriculture and food technology, a sector that represents roughly twelve to thirteen percent of Australian GDP. That gap is not a minor inefficiency. It is a structural vulnerability.
Australian food is 13 per cent of GDP. It gets less than 2 per cent of venture capital. That gap is not an accident. It is where the entire conversation starts.
What happens when the officer commanding Australia's forward-deployed surgical unit runs the same mission on her own time - faster, leaner, and without a joint logistics unit behind her?
Australia feeds the region, but the mineral that makes that possible is almost entirely imported, processed offshore, and held in supply chains that break on a predictable cycle.