Nova Systems rebrands from South Australian origins in its quest to become major player in the defence industry
Nova Systems' strength in test evaluation, certification and systems assurance includes integrating the Royal Australian Air Force's Wedgetail fleet (bottom left), based at Edinburgh based noeth of Adelaide, and modify special mission planes such as Victoria Police helicopters (bottom right).
Nova Systems became the banner for all of South Australian defence company Nova Group’s four businesses (Nova Systems, Geoplex, GVH Aerospace and two10degrees) in 2022 as it rebranded to compete with the industry’s biggest players.
Nova Systems was part of the only Australian-owned and -operated entity, Sovereign Missile Alliance (a 50-50 venture with Canberra-based Electro Optic Systems), bidding for the Australian Defence Force’s billion-dollar missile manufacturing plan.
Nova Systems also was one of four major service providers to the Australian defence department’s capability acquisition and sustainment group as the lead company in a consortium with PwC and British defence technology company QinetiQ. With a workforce approaching 1,000, Nova Systems had a presence in every mainland Australian state as well as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Norway and Singapore.
Headquartered in Mile End in 2022, the company was founded as Nova Aerospace in 1999 by Jim Whalley and Peter Nikoloff, with its first office at Edinburgh north of Adelaide. It was initially contracted to deliver flight test services to the Royal Australian Air Force.
The global engineering services and technology solutions company also was looking to ramp up its workforce as the Hunter Class shipbuilding programme in Adelaide gained pace and its work with the maritime patrol aircraft at the Edinburgh RAAF base, north of Adelaide, increased.
Nova Systems chief executive Jim McDowell said being appointed a major service provider to the Australian Defence Force in 2018 was the first real sign the company was positioned to become “a really large Australian company with a purpose”. McDowell said the Australian defence industry had half a dozen big multinationals at the top, all foreigned owned except Australian Shipbuilding Corporation submarines, and many small companies at the bottom.
Nova Systems was in the middle ground – “small enough to care but big enough to matter” – and the biggest player in the area of sovereign industrial capability priorities: test evaluation, certification and systems assurance.
Nova was also involved in commercial aerospace and had licences and regulatory approvals in Europe, Australia and the United Kingdom to modify special mission planes and helicopters in sectors such as emergency services. In space, it has a satellite ground station in Peterborough in South Australia’s mid north and iwasa founding member of AROSE (Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth) and the Adelaide-based SmartSat cooperative research centre.
Nova Systems in 2021 teamed with Safran and BAE Systems Australia to create Team SABRE to deliver the Land 125 Phase 4 integrated soldier system. Nova Systems already has a growing presence in the United Kingdom and believed the AUKUS alliance struck in 2021 would create many opportunities.
