Special Report: Australia's Nova Systems scales space and integration capabilities

Sensor arrays at the Nova Systems Space Precinct in Peterborough, South Australia. (Nova Systems)

Nova Systems is expanding its footprint across Australia's defence sector, advancing its space activities while more than doubling the size of its integration facility in Brisbane.

Nova Systems CEO Dean Rosenfield told Janes in September that the company's partnership with US-based Earth observation company Planet and the expansion of its National Systems Integration Centre reflect its efforts to strengthen sovereign systems-integration capabilities and deliver increasingly complex space and defence programmes in Australia.

In August, Nova formalised a partnership with Planet to enhance situational awareness for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the National Intelligence Community. The partnership aims to improve monitoring of land and maritime environments and provide a more integrated, data-driven operational picture for defence and national security missions.

According to Rosenfield, the partnership aims to provide Australia's defence, intelligence, and security organisations with a new layer of persistent awareness.

While Australia already has access to allied and commercial satellite imagery, Rosenfield said the challenge is maintaining continuous monitoring across vast areas and identifying changes that require investigation.

“Planet brings near daily revisit [of satellites], broad area Earth observation, and a growing range of automated change detection and AI [artificial intelligence]-derived analytics,” Rosenfield added.

The collaboration is intended to help customers identify activity patterns, monitor critical infrastructure, and support operational planning, he said.

He added that the real value of the partnership is not simply in providing imagery but in linking persistent observation with analysis and integrating that into existing defence systems.

Operational capability

Nova's role in the partnership is to translate Planet's commercial Earth observation capability into operational outcomes for Australian customers.