Case Study: An embedded cleared team sustaining deployed command and control capability

Client: Deployed ICT (D-ICT), Department of Defence

Project: Vehicle Platforms Capability Team

Profectus provides an embedded, NV2-cleared team across product management, training, field service representation and engineering to the Vehicle Platforms Capability Team within the Directorate of Deployed ICT (D-ICT). The team designs, delivers and sustains bespoke deployed ICT capabilities for the Australian Defence Force, on timeframes set by Army operational objectives.

Client and context

D-ICT governs the provision of authorised ICT systems to deployed forces, supporting, sustaining and assuring those capabilities as part of Defence’s warfighting information environment. Nested within the directorate, the Vehicle Platforms (VP) Team delivers multiple lines of effort across bespoke deployed platforms and environments, providing RHEL and Windows solutions supported by robust Fundamental Inputs to Capability (FIC). Its scope has expanded significantly over several years to include Headquarters on the Move (HQOTM), Long Range Fires and a System of Systems test environment. That growth needed more people, and new skill sets across engineering and training.

The engagement

  • Product management: Technical leadership of all VP Team deliverables, drawing on deep experience of ADF deployed environments, and de-conflicting competing stakeholder priorities to meet overarching Defence capability outcomes.
  • Training: Multiple resources applying the full Systems Approach to Defence Learning (SADL), with analysis informing training solutions that the team then designs and delivers.
  • Field Service Representation: A combined Level 2 engineering and training role, providing on-site support to end users and warfighters, then delivering targeted training on the issues behind each support request.
  • Software development and engineering: Senior engineers turning design artefacts into proofs of concept and production products, interpreting statements of need against bespoke interfaces and hardware.

The challenge

  • Integration: Solutions and FIC elements had to maintain interoperability with other teams across the land system of systems architecture.
  • Timeframe: Tasking is driven by Army operational objectives, which dictate very short development windows.
  • New capability: Many lines of effort are brand new into service, so there are few existing artefacts to reuse.
  • System complexity: Every solution works within hard limits, from bearer throughput to the compute and storage that fits on the platform.

Our approach

We treated the requirement as a team build rather than a set of individual placements. The VP Team needed people who could contribute from day one across engineering, training and field support, so we built around complementary skill sets and existing knowledge of the capability.

Map the capability, not just the role

We profiled each role against the environment it would support (deployed nodes, battlefield network integration, constrained bearers and hardware) and the FIC element it served, rather than recruiting to a generic position description.

Draw on a known, cleared pipeline

We sourced from our warm network of people with direct experience of the capability and its bearers: former Royal Australian Corps of Signals technicians, field representatives who had supported the platform since its delivery to Defence, and experienced Defence training specialists. Every team member held NV2 and was available immediately, removing clearance lead time from the schedule.

Build a team that covers for itself

Profiles were chosen to overlap: SADL analysis and instructional design; RF, SATCOM and Cisco networking; Linux and Jira administration; Windows SOE and automation. FSRs train, trainers author SOPs and test plans, and engineers back up FSRs in the field, so the team absorbs surge and absence without losing delivery.

Stay engaged after placement

As a directed workforce provider, we stay close to the team and the client: backfilling the Windows engineering role when it became vacant, and maintaining continuity of product leadership when the Product Manager role was formalised under its own work order as the capability moved into sustainment.

What we delivered

  • Microsoft end of life upgrades: Significant uplift of a key environment nearing critical end of life, including a new Windows 11 SOE and build methodology, with no downtime on production nodes.
  • New baseline: A new system baseline for a high priority Army capability, with new networking components, quality of life improvements and updated training.
  • System migration: An existing capability rebuilt and being migrated onto a new enclave, reducing the number of deployed networks in the battlespace.
  • Test environment: A lower environment reflecting every key production node type, so the directorate can test and report on new products and patches before deployment.
  • New capability: A green fields capability delivering command and control tools at the tactical edge, designed, developed and supported exclusively by the VP Team.
  • Training and assurance artefacts: Learning Management Packages, eLearning and courses in ADELE, SOPs for user through to engineering audiences, and AT&E and OT&E test plans coordinated with LC4.

Systems and methods

Jira · ITIL · Ansible · MECM · RHEL · Windows Server 2025 · OpenStack · OpenShift · MS Project · Git · DSMS · ADUC · Yubico · SitaWare · Hyper-V · Palo Alto · Riverbed SteelHead · M-Link · Swift · Articulate 360 · Moodle · ADELE

The result

The client has greater confidence in the VP Team’s ability to deliver mission critical capability in aggressive timeframes, which supports ADF readiness to deploy wherever required. As a result, the team has been approached for additional tasking on key risk reduction activities to inform future capabilities and streamline existing ones. The Profectus team has also embedded better governance and reporting, including Jira for internal tasking and clearer reporting to external stakeholders, giving improved visibility of team throughput and capability delivery.