Australian defence manufacturer XTEK Limited has received two Department of Defence grants totalling $800,000 to double existing helmet production and drive new ballistic product R&D.
The grants, worth $658,209.20 and $164,268.50, were provided through the Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority and the Defence Global Competitiveness grant programs respectively.
Through the Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority grant, XTEK will enhance its helmet pre-forming and production capacity.
The grant funding will be used to acquire, install, and commission a new custom helmet pre-forming press, resulting in a doubling of the current output at this stage. The project is estimated to be completed in May 2024.
The Defence Global Competitiveness grant funding will be used to purchase a new CNC Virtual Machining Centre to replace outdated equipment.
The new CAPEX will allow for safer and more complex machining, reducing the costs of outsourcing and improving productivity. This will accelerate new product development and prototyping, as well as support maintenance and production activities at XTEK’s manufacturing facility in Adelaide.
This project project is estimated to be completed in October 2023.
Scott Basham, XTEK’s group CEO, said XTEK was excited to receive the award of the two important Defence Grants.
“We are a proud sovereign Australian defence industry manufacturer with a growing global business footprint, and these grants will significantly help us to remain at the forefront of global lightweight and high-performance ballistic armour innovation,” he said.
He also said their unique “rifle rated” Rifle Combat Helmet (RCH) is receiving a lot of interest and attention globally.
Separate from the receipt of these two grants, and in anticipation of the new production capacity that will be achievable going forward in Adelaide, XTEK also recently completed works to modify some key elements of its XTclave production equipment and apparatus, which will allow for a significant 60 per cent increase in yield per XTclave helmet cycle.
XTEK will exceed earlier advice of $47 million for H1 FY23 when accounts are released in February 2023 and it continues to expect to deliver revenues of over $82 million, with five months still to run, for the full year.