Fireside Chat to Explore Innovation Under Pressure at Indo-Pacific 2025
As the global security landscape continues to shift, the urgency for Defence forces to adapt quickly has never been more apparent. From Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific, real-time conflict is exposing the limitations of traditional capability development and highlighting the need for agile, low-cost, and high-impact solutions. This session will examine how these lessons can inform Australia’s maritime strategy and capability planning.
DEWC Services will be hosting a specialist session at Indo-Pacific 2025, bringing together leading voices from Defence, diplomacy, academia, and industry to explore how real-time conflict is reshaping innovation in the maritime domain.
Titled “From Battlefield to Innovation Lab: Accelerating Defence Adaptation through Real-Time Conflict and Low-Cost Technologies in the Maritime Domain”, the fireside chat will take place on 4 November 2025 at the International Convention Centre in Sydney.
The panel will be facilitated by Kendy Hau, Deputy President of the United Services Institute and will feature:
His Excellency Mr Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia
Mr Allan Dundas, CEO of DEWC Services
Mr Chris Mills, AM CSC, Director of the UNSW Defence Research Institute
As Allan Dundas emphasised, the session will focus on the operational realities of innovation in contested environments.
“We are no longer talking about hypothetical scenarios,” Dundas said. “We are seeing in real time how nations are adapting under pressure, leveraging commercial technologies, accelerating development cycles, and redefining what readiness looks like.
This session is about translating those lessons into action for Australia’s maritime forces.”
Ambassador Myroshnychenko will offer a compelling perspective drawn from Ukraine’s experience in navigating sustained conflict. His insights will highlight how a nation under siege has rapidly mobilised innovation, harnessed civilian and commercial technologies and fostered resilience across Defence and society.
This global context will enrich the conversation around Australia’s strategic posture and its capacity to adapt in the Indo-Pacific.
Chris Mills added that the discussion will also delve into civil-military collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies.
“We need to be thinking about how we turn strategic intent into operational capability – quickly and effectively,” Mills said.
“This discussion is about bridging the gap.”
Seats are limited. Register now and be part of this critical conversation. Click here to register.
The regional security landscape is undergoing tectonic shifts. The spectre of great power competition looms large.