Defence Industry Grant Award

Hargrave Technologies Secures Strategic Investment to Scale Sovereign UAS Capability

Hargrave Technologies has been awarded a $610,203 grant under the Australian Government’s Defence Industry Development Grants Program – Sovereign Industrial Priorities Stream, a program designed to build the advanced manufacturing base required to support the defence needs of Australia and its allies in an increasingly contested world.

This investment will enable Hargrave to procure and install an automated conformal coating machine, as well as other critical SMT equipment, increasing the company’s total production capacity fourfold by the end of 2026. The conformal coating system will apply advanced protective films to electronics, allowing Hargrave’s ESCs to continue to perform reliably in the most extreme environments—where failure is not an option.

For over a decade, Hargrave Technologies has designed and built high-performance ESCs for the most demanding uncrewed aerial systems. As regional threats evolve and the nature of warfare shifts toward speed, adaptability, and resilience, Hargrave is scaling rapidly to meet the urgent demand for NDAA-compliant, flight-proven propulsion electronics.

“This grant accelerates our ability to provide allied warfighters with the hardware they need to win,” said Hargrave Technologies Managing Director Tony Bazouni. “Our ESCs are trusted by the best UAS in the skies, powering the missions that matter the most. This investment ensures we can produce them at scale—faster, more reliably, and at lower cost—while advancing Australia’s sovereign defence industrial base.”