Advanced Navigation says it will expand manufacturing into the United States by establishing a Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Centre of Excellence in Huntsville, Alabama, while maintaining Australia as its core manufacturing base and R&D hub.
The company said the Huntsville site will provide a dedicated U.S. production node, enabling specific components, systems and builds to be manufactured on U.S. soil where required for security, classified programs or customer requirements.
Advanced Navigation’s existing manufacturing and R&D operations span New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. The company said these Australian operations will continue to grow alongside the U.S. expansion.
Chief executive and co-founder Chris Shaw said the move would add capacity to support U.S. programs “while continuing to invest in the advanced manufacturing and R&D capability we have built here in Australia”.
The company linked the expansion to growing demand for “assured PNT” across defence, mining, aerospace, marine and autonomous systems, particularly in environments where GPS may be spoofed, jammed or unavailable.
Advanced Navigation said the Huntsville facility will focus on advanced manufacturing across fibre optics, MEMS and photonics. It also said it intends to use the U.S. site to meet requirements for sensitive and classified defence programs.
Vice president of U.S. operations Chuck Matheny said the company’s Australian manufacturing capability would be used as a foundation for establishing dedicated production in Huntsville.
Advanced Navigation said Huntsville’s proximity to Redstone Arsenal and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and its engineering workforce, were factors in the choice of location.
The company positioned the new U.S. facility as part of a broader manufacturing footprint across Australia, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, describing it as supporting redundancy and production across AUKUS nations.
Advanced Navigation said it works with the Australian Department of Defence’s Global Supply Chain (GSC) Program to integrate its technologies into international defence networks, and that it has more than 100,000 systems deployed globally.
