Adelaide-headquartered Defence prime Babcock Australasia (Babcock) has announced the opening of its new $7 million production and test facility at Woodville North.

The facility will play a key role in the company’s upgrade and enhancement of the Defence High Frequency Communications System (DHFCS or JP9101) and support of other defence projects like AUKUS.

The custom-built facility adds additional capability to Babcock’s overall footprint in Woodville North as part of its cutting-edge, $31 million Defence-accredited facility which opened in October 2024.

Babcock Australasia CEO Andrew Cridland said the latest expansion, which supported 100 jobs during the six-month construction phase, will offer highly skilled career opportunities into the future.

“We are excited to continue to expand our operations in South Australia – it allows us to support more jobs and provide exciting career opportunities to attract local, national and interstate talent to the state,” said Mr Cridland.

“Babcock continues to future-proof its capability through further expanding our operations in South Australia.

“Our $7 million Woodville North expansion enables us to deliver critical current Defence priorities such as our work supporting key programs like JP9101, and future national priorities, like AUKUS.”

Babcock, as the Commonwealth’s industry partner for JP9101, secured a 10-year, $877 million program of works to operate and maintain the existing DHFCS and deliver a comprehensive upgrade of the technology or Enhanced Defence High Frequency Communication System (EDHFCS).

Critical for delivering secure, long-range radio and data communications, the EDHFCS will be highly automated and advanced, delivering reliable information exchanges faster and further than the current technology.