Background
Australia’s national security is becoming increasingly complex. Threats to national interest span air, space, sea, land and cyber challenging the Australian government to respond swiftly with a focus on integrating Australian Defence Force capability with Royal Australian Air Force vision.
The AIR6500 Prototype Project is currently progressing through a risk reduction program with the Australian Government as part of the procurement that will culminate in the purchase of a modern next-generation Joint Air Battle Management System (JABMS).
Two major aerospace organisations are in a Competitive Evaluation Process to be selected as the program’s strategic delivery partner and both have introduced external companies to assist in delivering a range of technical expertise.
KJR has been embedded into one of the competing companies prototype team as Quality Focused Software Engineers, assisting with the setup of JABMS prototype to demonstrate the teams JABMS capability.
Why KJR was engaged
KJR was engaged for the AIR6500 Joint Air Battle Management System (JABMS) prototype project to provide trusted expertise in:
- Rapid system integration and agile prototyping: KJR brought proven experience in building modular, configurable architectures essential for Defence’s evolving needs.
- Assurance of complex, multi-domain digital systems: The JABMS prototype required high levels of software quality, data assurance, and integration testing—core strengths of KJR’s consultancy practice.
- Reducing technical and programmatic risk: KJR’s involvement helped ensure that the prototype met Defence’s performance, security, and interoperability expectations, supporting a seamless transition into future development phases.
Our ability to deliver independently verified, adaptable, and secure digital systems made KJR a strategic partner in demonstrating and validating this next-generation capability for the ADF.
Challenge
The Risk Reduction activity is being driven by The Department of Defence and is operating within a strict schedule. As such, the combined team was required to stand up the JABMS capability rapidly to demonstrate elements of the capability to the Departmental representatives.
Elements of the companies existing Battle Manager Systems were imported from the US for integration into the Australian prototype. Not only was it important to deliver successful integration of the US components into the AIR6500 prototype, but also demonstrate improvements through bespoke tailoring aligned with Australian requirements and incountry resources.
Solution
KJR as part of the team created an integrated prototype and then focused on demonstrating a functional JABMS with a safe and secure development environment, established processes using best practice and a knowledgeable high performing team able to adapt and change with needs in Australia.
KJR joined the team at the beginning of the prototype build, configuration and integration cycle. The team took ownership of the delivery of the development environment, processes, and tools utilising elements of their existing Battle Manager Systems, to be integrated into the Australian prototype. Given the green fields nature of the development environment, KJR as part of the prototype team had the opportunity to shape processes including development practices and configuration as well as implementation of tools in use.
SAFe Agile was chosen as the delivery method.
Deliverables
KJR’s deliverables as part of the Prototype team are ongoing and reviewed by the Commonwealth at the end of each Program increment.
- Functional and non-functional improvements demonstrated every two weeks.
- Full prototype demonstration delivered every 12 weeks.
Key Outcomes
Project outcomes demonstrated to the Commonwealth Government the reduction of risk through the following:
- a high functioning team, through team communication, relationships, and commitment.
- a functional prototype, with required components integrated and updated.
- an open architecture able to integrate other components easily.
These results will hopefully lead to the company winning the Competitive Evaluation Process, and an extended contract with the Government. The other outcome is a solid foundation for Australia’s future Joint Air and Battle Management System delivering protection for the
Customer Benefits
In the AIR6500 Joint Air Battle Management System (JABMS) prototype project, KJR delivered several key benefits to the customer:
- Reduced Technical Risk
KJR’s rigorous assurance practices ensured system components were tested, secure, and interoperable—minimising integration risks and supporting future scalability.
- Agile, Configurable Prototyping
KJR enabled rapid development and deployment of prototype elements using agile methods and configurable architecture—accelerating delivery and demonstrating system responsiveness to evolving Defence needs.
- Trusted System Assurance
With deep experience in software quality and Defence-grade assurance, KJR verified system behaviour, data integrity, and compliance, increasing Defence confidence in the prototype’s maturity.
- Seamless Multi-Domain Integration
KJR supported integration across joint and allied systems, aligning with JABMS goals of unified air, land, and maritime situational awareness.
- Foundation for Future Capability
By contributing to the prototype’s validation, KJR laid the groundwork for Phase 2 development—supporting Australia’s long-term air battle management capability and sovereign defence objectives.
Tools & Technologies
- Jenkins
- Ansible
- Docker
- Fortify
- Sonarqube
- Nexus
- Nessus scan
- Github
- RTI DDS
- Confluence
- JIRA
