The Department of Defence is seeking to establish the Operational Energy Transitions Defence Research Centre (OET DRC) to shape the Defence energy landscape and deliver operationally relevant, deployable energy solutions that support the future Integrated Force.
Defence is transitioning from a predominantly liquid fuel-centric logistics model to a multi-vector operational energy system integrating generation, storage, power management, and fuels. This transition introduces new technical and integration challenges, particularly in ensuring that energy systems are deployable, survivable, scalable, and capable of operating independently of vulnerable supply chains in contested environments, including northern Australia.
While civilian energy technologies are advancing rapidly, Defence requirements differ fundamentally, prioritising assurance, resilience, survivability, and operational relevance over efficiency or cost optimisation. Market forces alone are insufficient to deliver solutions tailored to these unique requirements, creating a need for Defence-directed intervention to shape, coordinate, and accelerate innovation in operational energy systems.
The OET DRC will operate as a problem-led, outcome-focused enterprise, integrating Defence, academia, industry and international partners into a coherent, mission-driven effort. Its role is not to conduct isolated, exploratory or basic research, but to accelerate the adoption, integration, and transition of energy technologies into deployable Defence capability, particularly where conventional market or program mechanisms are insufficient. It will support innovative, low Technology Readiness Level research that advances new knowledge, develops emerging concepts or prototypes and has the potential to contribute to future capability outcomes.
The OET DRC will initially address five Themes:
- Dispersed Energy Access at the Tactical Edge – new approaches to enable reliable, low-signature energy access for dispersed forces and remote systems operating beyond traditional supply chains.
- Sustainment Under Contested Conditions – innovative concepts to support persistent and assured sustainment in environments where traditional logistics pathways are degraded, denied or high-risk
- Resilient and Scalable Forward Energy Systems – deployable energy systems that can adapt, scale and operate independently across a range of environments, from established bases to austere forward positions.
- Enabling Next-Generation High-Power and High-Consumption Capabilities – approaches to ensure that future platforms, mission systems, autonomous capabilities and electrified force elements (including both high-power capabilities and high-consumption distributed electrically-dependent systems) can be effectively powered, integrated and sustained without constraining operational effectiveness.
- Extended Endurance and Reduced Logistic Dependence – solutions that enhance operational endurance while reducing reliance on vulnerable and resource-intensive resupply chains.
Defence is seeking
Responses are due 2:00pm 26 October 2026 (AEDT) via AusTender Ref: 13016
Responses are due 2:00pm 26 October 2026 (AEDT) via AusTender Ref: 13457
A virtual Industry Briefing on the OET DRC will be held 1 October 2026. Register here by 5:00pm Monday 28 September 2026 (AEDT).
