Momentum: We heard that Raytheon bought assets of Compucat Research Pty Ltd in January. What exactly has Raytheon Australia acquired?

Andrew Pyke: Well, firstly I should clarify that Raytheon has not actually bought Compucat — we did what is, in the trade, called an ‘asset purchase’: We have bought some of the assets of Compucat, recruited a significant number of ex-Compucat employees and, with the agreement of our customers, novated some of Compucat’s contracts to Raytheon Australia. This is an important concept to understand, because the former-Compucat assets have been fully integrated into Raytheon Australia, novated customers are now being fully supported by Raytheon Australia and the future of Compucat Research Pty Ltd is entirely a matter for the owners of that company.

Therefore, through this process we have acquired a very talented team of former-Compucat software developers and testers, Program Managers and other professionals. We have also acquired some amazing technologies, in the form of Intellectual Property (IP) and we have acquired a specialist building that is key to our future growth.

M: What can you tell us about this ‘specialist building’ and how is it key to Raytheon’s future growth?

AP: Through this acquisition, Raytheon Australia now has an extremely scarce secure facility in Australia, capable of doing work for our customers that we could not contemplate before, and that very few of our competitors can do. It is located in Canberra, right where our main customers are, and adjacent to cyber training initiatives at two universities. This is key to our strategy of being a trusted partner in this market.

The building was originally purpose-built for radio communications engineering and testing, and includes many secure screened rooms and structural qualities that suit our purpose. It would have cost a small fortune to build such a facility, so this really is one of the prizes from the asset purchases.

M: You mentioned technologies, what can you tell us about these?

AP: Technology is an area where our former-Compucat team can be very proud. Over many years they have builtup a range of world-class technologies. We are actively exporting products and services to the US, UK, NZ and Canada. We also have a number of ongoing technologies in Australia. To give you a few samples, these include:

• Integrity Software, which is a cybersecurity product;
• CMX, a secure messaging switch;
• SOS, a secure optical switch;
• specialist Class B cabinets;
• specialist engineering services to help customers achieve interoperability with their C2 systems, using the Multilateral Interoperability Protocol (MIP); and
• some important subsystems on BDA’s Vigilaire system.

You can see the sorts of skills that the team here have, and the relevance to our future growth.

M: You mention the former-Compucat team. How are they settling-in?

AP: I have to say, we have struck gold again with this team. Our company is made up with many people that came from other companies Raytheon Australia acquired, such as ATS, Boeing Naval Systems, Honeywell Defence, Qantas Defence Services, and general recruitment from many other places. With each expansion, we add to our talent pool. One of the strengths of Raytheon Australia is that we have a huge pool of over 600 engineers and technicians, as well as 120 program managers. This group here continues this tradition, particularly in software development and testing. The average years of experience of those that have been recruited from Compucat is 10 years, with many individuals at the top of their profession.

Things have moved fast over the last eight months of transition and there has been a lot of change for the team. One of the challenges is to get the go-forward plan together, so that everyone can see their place in our company’s future. There is also much that Raytheon can learn from how the team here innovates in an R&D environment. We have been encouraging our technical and management staff to take short assignments around Raytheon Australia, so that they can get to know the company and learn our processes. We also encourage anyone to visit Belconnen when they are in Canberra to see the capabilities here. There is still much to do, but we have come a long way.

M: Can you explain what has led Raytheon to acquire these assets?

AP: Well, this is not a recent thing. Actually, Raytheon Australia has been quietly looking for opportunities in this area for several years, as we understood where our customers’ needs were developing. We saw the opportunity that existed to bring Raytheon’s leading capabilities in Intelligence and Informations Systems (IIS) to assist our Australian customers. This has been something that Michael Ward and Gerard Foley, in particular, have been working on for several years as part of our company strategy, with strong support from Lynn Dugle and the Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems team in the US, so it’s great to see it all being realised this year.

Our market analysis has clearly shown the growth in the Intelligence markets and, mapping this against Raytheon’s strengths, we really see that we have something to offer our customers in five key areas: Cybersecurity; Information and Communications Technology (ICT); Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR); Intelligence Operations Support; and Geospatial solutions.

We see it as a natural thing for Raytheon Australia to step-up its focus on these areas, building on our well-established reputation in Intelligence Operations Support. We plan to extend our skills and track record of performance that we have in Aerospace, Naval and Land programs, into these adjacent markets where we know that customers will equally value what we have to offer.

M: You used the word ‘cyber’. What is that?

AP: Yes, it’s a bit of buzzword that we have to get used to. Most Momentum readers will understand the general meaning of ‘cyberspace’, referring to the virtual ‘space’ that is created in computer networks. For individuals, organisations and the nation, cyberspace has effectively become a new ‘domain’ that we can operate in, manoeuvre in, and that has to be defended, much like land, sea, air and space. ‘Cyber‘ has become a shorthand phrase for this new domain and the industry around it.

M: The term ‘cyber professional’ and even ‘cyber warrior’ seem to be used a lot. What exactly then is a cyber professional?

AP: Cyber professionals or as they are sometimes called ‘cyber warriors’ are people with specialised knowledge in communications technologies, computer internals, network security and data integrity. They may not necessarily always come with an engineering background but all learn to view network computer security the way a hacker might, by identifying how our systems are put together and where the vulnerabilities are. Eventually they may also learn hacker methodologies, tools, techniques and strategies, together with defensive methodologies that can be implemented to protect your network.

The Cyber professional will become essential to the success of our Security Solutions business in helping us develop our products, solutions and technologies for both our company and customers. This will help ensure we protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of critical information and infrastructures.

M: What other types of people and skills are needed to work in the Security Solutions environment?

AP: Cyber professionals will not be the only people Security Solutions will be need in the future. As we grow the business we will be looking for a range of skilled professionals capable of enhancing and updating our product and technology base. In future, I would expect there will be many opportunities to grow our engineering roles, in particular our software and hardware disciplines. These roles will be just as important as the cyber professional roles given the diversity of information and communications security projects in which we will hopefully be involved over the next five to ten years. We will also require a variety of staff with skills in project management, IT and network administration to name a few.

I would hope as the business grows and opportunities increase many of our Raytheon employees will be thinking seriously about working in the Security Solutions team. It will be a challenging environment but one of major importance in keeping our nation and Allies safe through use of our leading edge technology.

M: There was also an announcement of Security Solutions being formed in July. What does that mean and how will it fit into Raytheon Australia?

AP: The announcement on 1 July formally marked the end of the transition period, where the former-Compucat people and assets were integrated into Raytheon Australia, and marked the commencement of Security Solutions as the fourth Business Unit in Raytheon Australia.

Security Solutions will fit into Raytheon Australia pretty much the same way Mission Support and Integrated Solutions do — we will have the same functional relationships across the company, with embedded leads in Finance, HR, Engineering, etc. This is a further demonstration of the flexibility that Raytheon Australia’s matrix structure provides — we are able to flex and adjust to suit new opportunities, without having to re-invent wheels across the company.

On another note, we now have our Annual Operating Plan, the leadership team in place and are moving strongly to deliver results for our customers and to the company.

M: This sounds like we will be supporting some new and different customers. Who are they and what are their priorities?

AP: Yes, one of the main markets for Security Solutions is the Australian Intelligence Community (AIC), which includes civil and Defence agencies. We also serve the Intelligence Community of our Allies. Each of these customers has their own missions and particular approaches to their work. There are of course, stringent and vitally important security requirements to satisfy, but that is something Raytheon is comfortable with. As for any sophisticated customer, we will be focusing on the basics of performance, bringing great technologies and solutions, supporting the mission and being a trusted partner.

M: That sounds pretty exciting to be the first General Manager of Security Solutions. What are your top priorities?

AP: This is a dream job for me personally — after a few years in a Headquarters environment and working closely with Defence, it is a wonderful change to get back to a GM role and to be working with some new customers and technologies.

On priorities, there are many, but I would single-out:

The basic stuff of getting Security Solutions up on its feet and operating to its Plan.

• We are still forming as a new team, so that will be a priority for a few months.
• Completing a number of transition actions that we are still closing-out, including getting the building up to standard and accredited.
• Deepening and broadening our customer relationships — we have some pretty exciting conversations to have about this capability and what Raytheon can offer now. This is the centre of our planning.
• Working with the team here and in the US to get our Five Year Plan to the next level of clarity. Michael Woods in Corporate BD is a key partner in this and we are working closely together on it.
• One of the challenges is to get the balance right between the innovative practices that come from Compucat, and the disciplined processes from Raytheon. I see this as a great opportunity, in a sense to ‘get the best of both worlds’.

M: How do you see that your background will help in the role?

AP: Well, I could give you a predictable answer about my CV in engineering, military, business and program leadership, etc, but I think the things that will really help me in this role may be other than that: I really enjoy working with the sort of talented professionals that makeup Security Solutions and our customer teams — this situation reminds me a lot of one of the best jobs that I had in my career, working on developing the Jindalee over-the-horizon radar with DSTO scientists and engineers, and the RAAF.

I also love the fact that what we do really matters — I have done many jobs that just didn’t get me out of bed like this one. Another thing I get a buzz out of is creatively solving complex problems — I typically take a long-term view and can be quite persistent, so I hope that is a useful quality to bring to the team. I would also add that I know when to ask for support — the Leadership Team (LT) of Raytheon Australia have just been fantastic in getting Security Solutions up and running and that’s a great team to be part of, at that level. Same, same with the local LT here.

M: Many companies seem to be moving into cybersecurity. Where do you see Raytheon Australia in the market?

AP: I don’t want to give too much away, but I think we can safely say that our strengths will always be at the top-end of the market and in supporting Government customers. We build Government-grade solutions, so I don’t see us going down-market where there are excellent alternative companies that are geared-up for commercial markets — in fact many of these will be our teaming partners. Our customers are after trusted partners that know their environment and can handle large-scale systems and the rigour that Raytheon provides. They don’t want technologies that are all over the street, and they want us to support their own innovations, not just push our own. That is where we will be sitting in the market. M