The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is part of the Australian Department of Defence dedicated to providing science and technology support for Australia's defence and national security needs. It is Australia's second largest government-funded science organisation after the CSIRO.
To achieve its mission, DSTO provides scientific and technical support to current defence operations, investigates future technologies for defence and national security applications, advises on the purchase and smart use of defence equipment, develops new defence capabilities, and enhances existing systems by improving performance and safety and reducing the cost of owning defence assets.
The Chief Defence Scientist leads the DSTO. The position is supported by an independent Advisory Board with representatives from defence, industry, academia and the science community.
DSTO has an annual budget of approximately $440 million and employs over 2500 staff, predominantly scientists, engineers, IT specialists and technicians. DSTO has establishments in all Australian states and the Australian Capital Terriotry with posted representatives in Washington and London.
In February 2012 DSTO was given the whole-of-government responsibility to coordinate research and development for Australia's national security.
DSTO collaborates with science and technology organisations around the world to strengthen its technology base and works closely with Australian industry and universities to enhance defence capability. International engagement allows DSTO to explore potential technological opportunities at significantly less cost and provides access to overseas capabilities otherwise not available to the ADF. DSTO is a member of The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) with the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. It also has bilateral defence science agreements with USA, UK, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and Singapore.
DSTO manages the Capability and Technology Demonstrator (CTD) program on behalf of Defence. This program is an avenue for innovation by Australian industry. It provides opportunities and funding for industry to demonstrate new technologies or the novel use of technology that can enhance capability in areas of defence priority.
Read more about Defence Science And Technology Organisation: History, Sites, Chief Defence Scientist, Capability and Technology Demonstrator (CTD) Program
Famous quotes containing the words defence, science, technology and/or organisation:
“What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right. An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No, ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behavior as well as by application. It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws. The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation upon the natural organisation of the body.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)