RPDE Flyer
The RPDE Flyer below provides an overview of the RPDE Program. For further details, contact the Stakeholder Liaison Manager, Ian McKenzie. Contact details are shown at “Contact Us” tab above.
RPDE is about Defence and Industry working together
The Rapid Prototyping, Development and Evaluation (RPDE) Program is a collaborative venture between the Australian Department of Defence and industry.
RPDE’s mission is to enhance ADF warfighting capacity through accelerated capability change in the NCW environment
In order to meet this challenge, RPDE has established organisational competence in partnership and rapid task delivery. In effect, RPDE is uniquely able to rapidly draw together Defence and industry knowledge, experience and Intellectual Property (IP)to understand problems, identify potential solutions and provide evidence supporting our decision support and change management recommendations.
To achieve this RPDE has created a culture of innovation and learning where new ideas are welcomed and the benefits of success shared across the partnership.
The RPDE core competence is being applied in the Network Centric Warfare (NCW) space to deliver near term ADF capability enhancements. RPDE uses a range of investigative, analytical and experimentation techniques appropriate to the specific problem being addressed to explore and verify the value of our proposed solutions.
RPDE is not about replicating the competence of our partners, rather, we leverage the facilities, knowledge and experience resident within Defence and industry to achieve our missionthrough investing time to establish trust in our relationships.
How does RPDE set about its business?
RPDE Operating Model
RPDE seeks to improve ADF warfighting capability by delivering evidenced recommendations encompassing the fundamental inputs to capability (FIC) – collective training, support, facilities, organisation, personnel, command and management, major systems and supplies, for implementation in the short term.
The Operating Model is at its core, very simple. RPDE scopes and bounds problems identified by ADF stakeholders. It then develops options to solve the problem, conducting analysis to understand all the feasible approaches. Next, RPDE evaluates a selection of the solution options to develop evidence underpinning a recommended solution option. Finally, it prepares a plan showing how ADF warfighters would change – and subsequently supporting ADF implementation.
Solution options are evaluated using a rigorous, analytical and/or experimentation approach that delivers evidence which supports RPDE conclusions and options in response to a specific Question. This allows Defence to make informed decisions about the implementation of high-value opportunities. A range of tools and techniques ranging from simulation and modelling, operational analysis, experimentation and other investigative and analytical methods will be used to prototype and develop concepts to determine their capability improvement value and implementation feasibility.
RPDE Tasks
A Question which is addressed by RPDE as a ‘Task’ may originate as a proposal from anywhere within Defence, Industry or RPDE itself. However all proposals must be submitted to the Defence Network-centric Warfare Program Office (NCWPO) in the first instance. NCWPO works with RPDE to determine the suitability of each proposal for RPDE and the relative priority of any ensuing Task. Questions and their priority are approved by the Defence RPDE Steering Group prior to any further effort being undertaken. The Defence RPDE Steering Group plays a vital governance role throughout the Task delivery lifecycle, described below.
The diagram below illustrates how proposals are shaped into specific Questions and addressed as Tasks collaboratively by RPDE – drawing on the resources (people and facilities) from both Defence and Industry (including academia).
Figure 1
RDPE Tasks are delivered according to a generic 6-stage process depicted in Figure 2. Each of the 6 stages concludes with a Steering Gate where the progress of the Task is checked and approved for on-going work. The process is not intended to be onerous, rather providing a framework that allows the wide range of participants and stakeholders of a Task to keep track of the Task progress.
Figure 2
How do our Participants become involved in Tasks?
RPDE periodically publishes details of upcoming tasks providing indications of the subject area of the task and hence of the types of skills that may be required. This is an attempt to assist our participants resource planning activities that will enable them to engage with RPDE for those tasks that are of specific interest to their business competencies.
Once a Task has completed the detailed Task Planning stage and the RPDE Defence Steering Group has endorsed the Task at Steering Gate 2, the Task mobilises and Services Requests will be issued to our participants that may be seeking personnel, facilities and other non-personnel resources for example, models, battlelabs, synthetic environments for use during a Task. Once all nominations are received, interviews will be conducted and Task team members selected on the basis of ‘best candidate for the position’ and cost.