Two systems unveiled, a week of back-to-back press, and a stand that stayed busy from open to close. Here's what happened at the Indian Ocean Defence and Security conference.
The unveilings
WA Premier Roger Cook and Defence Industry Minister Paul Papalia unveiled two Hyperion systems at IODS. The first was the Hyperion TitanCell, a deployable containerised manufacturing cell. The second was the ASTRA 460, the southern hemisphere's first 3D printed uncrewed surface vessel, whose hull was printed in Henderson in roughly 40 hours.
Defence primes, government stakeholders and international delegates filled the stand for both. For the TitanCell it was a public debut: a self-contained production cell that puts large-format manufacturing where the work is, rather than freighting parts to it.
Media Coverage
CEO Joshua Wigley ran interviews back to back across print, broadcast and online for most of the conference, covering the TitanCell, the ASTRA 460 program, and what Hyperion is doing differently in Australian advanced manufacturing. Coverage ran in The West Australian and across television and digital news.
International Engagement
US Consul General for Western Australia Colleen Altstock visited the stand to talk through the technology and where it could be deployed internationally. Hyperion already has a presence in the United States, and the Indo-Pacific is where production tends to break down first: long freight routes, remote bases, and thin local fabrication capacity.
CEO Joshua Wigley on the Panel
Wigley also joined an AMDA Careers panel on innovation and sovereign industry, speaking alongside industry and academic leaders on what it actually takes to build advanced manufacturing capability in Australia, and what that opens up for the next generation of engineers and technicians.
What the changed
Before IODS, the technology was proven at Henderson. After it, it had been shown in public, at full scale, to the people who buy it and the people who regulate it.
The conversations from the stand are still running. If you were at IODS and didn't get a chance to speak with the team, get in touch.
