Advanced Navigation expands manufacturing to US
Advanced Navigation will expand its Australian manufacturing capability into the US, establishing a Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Centre of Excellence in Huntsville, Alabama.
The expansion builds on Advanced Navigation’s existing manufacturing and R&D capability in Australia, which will remain the company’s core manufacturing base and technology hub, to build and deliver complex navigation technology.
This new PNT Centre of Excellence will allow specific components, systems and builds to be produced on US soil where required for security, classified programs or customer requirements.
“Advanced Navigation was built in Australia, and remains at the heart of our technology, engineering and manufacturing capability,” CEO and co-founder of Advanced Navigation, Chris Shaw, said.
“Expanding into the United States allows us to take that capability directly into one of the world’s largest defence markets. It gives us additional capacity to support U.S. programs while continuing to invest in the advanced manufacturing and R&D capability we have built here in Australia.”
Together, the Australian and US operations will increase Advanced Navigation’s global manufacturing capacity and strengthen allied access to assured PNT technology as demand grows across defence and autonomous systems.
Building fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG) sensors precise enough to detect the Earth’s rotation requires engineering at a level similar to semiconductor fabrication, where even microscopic variations can affect performance. That makes the manufacturing technique itself part of the underlying intellectual property.
According to Advanced Navigation, it is one of a few companies globally with the capability to produce strategic-grade FOGs and laser velocity sensors at scale. These technologies provide the precision required for defence platforms to understand where they are and how they are moving when GPS is spoofed, jammed or unavailable – across any harsh environment.
“With technology this precise, you can’t separate engineering from manufacturing,” Vice President of US Operations at Advanced Navigation America, Chuck Matheny, said.
“Production, calibration and validation all have to work together. The capability developed in Australia gives us a strong foundation to build from as we establish dedicated manufacturing in Huntsville and respond to the specific requirements of U.S. defence programs.”
The Huntsville PNT Centre of Excellence will focus on advanced manufacturing, adding dedicated US production capacity alongside the company’s Australian operations.
It will support the production of technologies spanning fibre optics, MEMS and photonics, while enabling Advanced Navigation to undertake US-based production where required for sensitive and classified defence programs.
Huntsville was selected for its specialist workforce and defence base required to manufacture complex technologies. Surrounded by Redstone Arsenal, the Missile Defense Agency, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the headquarters of US Space Command, Huntsville has one of the highest concentrations of engineers and STEM workers per capita in the US.
“Our investment in Huntsville is an extension of what we have built in Australia, not a replacement for it,” Shaw said.
“This is about an Aussie deep-tech company taking its technology and manufacturing capability into one of the world’s largest defence markets, while continuing to invest, innovate and manufacture here at home.”
The expansion comes as Australia and its AUKUS partners deepen integration across their defence industrial bases and seek more resilient supply chains for critical technologies.
The Huntsville facility establishes a major US manufacturing node alongside Advanced Navigation’s Australian and United Kingdom operation arms, expanding across all three AUKUS nations.
This strengthens supply-chain redundancy, increases global production capacity and enables faster response to US defence requirements.
Advanced Navigation works directly with the Australian Department of Defence’s Global Supply Chain (GSC) Program to integrate its technologies into international defence networks. With more than 100,000 systems deployed globally, its customers include Anduril, Hanwha, Kongsberg, Rheinmetall, BAE Systems, Leonardo and Lockheed Martin.
