Av-Comm has been featured as part of Lockheed Martin Australia’s partnerships series, highlighting the growing relationship between the prime and Australian SMEs to deliver some of the country’s most significant space projects.

“Our family-owned business has been around for almost as long as satellites have needed supportive infrastructure on the ground,” said Michael Cratt, Av-Comm’s Managing Director. “We have brought television to homes and Wi-Fi to aeroplanes, and after a chance meeting 15 years ago at its Telemetry Tracking and Command station in Uralla, we have helped Lockheed Martin communicate with in-orbit satellites.”

Since then, Av-Comm’s relationship with Lockheed Martin has steadily grown, with the company progressing from installing basic equipment to designing and taking part in multi-million dollar programs such as SouthPAN and JP9102.

And while the scope of the contracts has played an important role, Michael said the success of Av-Comm’s relationship with Lockheed Martin comes down to the human factor.

“There’s a warmth and empathy to our interactions. And because of this, we take a lot of pride in our work,” Michael said.

“After almost 20 years in the industry with Av-Comm, I’ve learnt that what sustains you is the people you deal with. And the people at Lockheed Martin make all the difference.

They treat you as equals. They have embraced the opportunity to strengthen Av-Comm and shape our future, mentoring and upskilling us so we can continue to evolve and play a bigger role in their projects,” said Michael.

This extract is from Lockheed Martin Australia’s partnerships series of articles. Read the full article here.