Chapter 13
I Colonial Origins
II First World War
III Between The World Wars
IV The Second World War
V Post-second World War
VI After The Joint Project
i Change at Salsbury and Woomera
ii An Australian Empire
iii Multi-National Collaboration
iv Re-Organisation
v Applied Research in the 70s and 80s
vi Armour
vii Organic Materials
viii Aeronautics
ix Surveillance, Detection and Information
VII Science And Decisions At The Top
VIII Armed Services Technology
IX New Tasks And Projects
X Transfer Of Research And Development
XI Acknowledgement
References
Index
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Change at Salsbury and Woomera
The United Kingdom-Australia Joint Project was due to be re-negotiated in 1967 in a climate of defence economies in the United Kingdom. The Joint Project and the Weapons Research Establishment, which were really responsive to United Kingdom needs, employed at this stage nearly 80 per cent of the civilian staff engaged in defence science, although only about 50 per cent of the professionals. Obviously, changes in British utilisation would affect the structure seriously. Some other users, such as the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and the United States Government, had been found, but it was apparent that a continuous decrease in work-load could be expected.The agreement was extended for four years from July 1968, with new arrangements. There came into being a Trials Organisation and a Salisbury Laboratories Organisation. The former was maintained by both governments on a cost sharing basis and the latter was wholly maintained by the Australian government.
The work of the Trials Organisation for the British included trials and development of several missiles (Sea Dart, Royal Navy Ikara, Rapier), the Black Arrow satellite launch vehicle, and some civil research on the upper atmosphere using the Skylark vehicle. Work was done for Australia on the Royal Australian Navy version of Ikara, the Australian designed remote controlled target aircraft Jindivik, and cluster weapons. Some co-operative work was also done on bomb ballistics and supersonic vehicles.
The changes at the base laboratories in Salisbury were considerable. As well as the research laboratories there now became available fully for Australian use the considerable resources of that part known as the Engineering Wing; these resources had previously been dedicated to the design of sophisticated instrumentation and facilities for the range.
Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Aeronautical Research Laboratories; European Launcher Development Organisation (E.L.D.O.); Weapons Research Establishment (W.R.E.)
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition pages 954 - 955, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/934.html