By Sophie Blewitt
Content Warning: This article contains references to violent conflict.
A motion moved at the first ANUSA Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) of 2026 has caused debate over the consequences of the ANU’s involvement with Australian military projects. At the OGM, on 18 March, Finnian Colwell (a member of the political party ‘Students and Staff Against War’) moved the motion ‘ANU Institute for Space, End Collaboration with Genocide-Complicit Companies’. This advocated for the student union to protest against the ANU’s projects with weapons companies, including Northrop Grumman and EOS.
Northrop Grumman, an American defence company, manufactures radar systems used on F-35 jets used by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. These systems detect other aircraft as well as produce maps of buildings.
The iLAuNCH Trailblazer space program, a collaboration between The University of Southern Queensland, the University of South Australia, and the ANU, involves a ‘Hypersonic Missile Early Warning Project’. According to the iLAuNCH website, during this project students will design a small-satellite system to detect hypersonic missiles and Northrop Grumman Australia will “undertake mission engineering and validate operational concepts in a synthetic testbed”. Students and Staff Against War expressed concerns that this research by the ANU could, consequently, be commercialised by Northrop Grumman in current or future wars.
They also expressed concern that this research could be used in a potential future war with China involving attacks on satellites. In a statement to Observer, Colwell said “the reason they’re interested in detecting hypersonic missiles is because this is a particular kind of missile that can circumvent traditional air defence systems”.
“So there’s a concern that if there’s a war in the Pacific, for example, China could circumvent our current air systems in the same way that Iran has with Israel… if [the production of this technology] gives China a reason to start targeting our satellites, it’ll just be chaos.”
The ANU also has an ongoing OzFuel research project with EOS (Electro Optic Systems), an Australian weapons company specialising in manufacturing high-precision remote weaponry. OzFuel contributes to fire management in the Australian bush by monitoring bushfires from space. This project, as well as ANU’s project with EOS for eliminating space debris, creates research that is useful for purposes other than warfare. Both also develop capabilities in Space-Based Space Surveillance, “a vital tool for both defence and commercial space operations” (as stated on the EOS website). EOS also produces R400 weapons systems, which were tested in Israel in January 2024.
Before the motion to “demand that the ANU cut all ties with Northrop Grumman, EOS, ASD and other organisations who provide material support to the Israeli military or security services” was voted upon, Thalia Greinke, a Mathematical Physics PhD student, voiced her concerns.
“I understand the people who brought this motion are very likely arts students,” she began. “To cut ties with Northrop Grumman… and defence in general is only going to hurt people at this university… We are as a university intrinsically linked with the military industrial project.”
The Australian Signals Directorate offers 30 grants per year in the form of the Co-Lab Honours Grant, offered to any student who “is undertaking a research project during their Honours year that aligns with the Australian Signals Directorate research interests”. The Northrop Grumman Scholarship is available to Computer Science students completing a major in the field of cybersecurity.
Greinke also noted that sabotaging the OzFuel or iLAuNCH project would “kneecap” STEM students looking to create significant research and increase their career opportunities. It would also “infringe academic freedoms”, effectively limiting research options for STEM students, even where projects have ostensibly positive outcomes, such as in the case of the OzFuel project’s contribution to bushfire management.
In a statement to Observer, engineering student Rory* remarked that “there is a disconnect between ANUSA representatives, who I assume are largely students of the humanities, and the STEM students who would suffer”.
“It’s easy to demand cutting ties with projects you have nothing to do with. Their careers won’t be impacted at all.”
When speaking to Observer, Colwell resisted the assertion that the motion is at odds with the interests of STEM students:
“The reason why these programs are occurring in the first place has to do with the neoliberal restructuring of universities. We have a corporate university model… which means that the university, rather than getting revenue from the government, is forced to seek out revenue from corporations [or] government agencies doing applied research to help them with profit seeking.”
He added, “STEM students suffer from this. In 2022, [the ANU] got rid of biomedical engineering… I think STEM students should have the opportunity to study whatever they want.”
The discussion at the OGM also raised the topic of whether students have a responsibility to protest connections to Australia’s military industrial complex. Greinke argued that universities have always contributed to research in the “national interest”. Carter Chryse, a member of Socialist Alternative, responded that this was “a remarkably right-wing argument”, adding that “if we were in the middle of the Vietnam War and we had people working on Agent Orange, would we be accepting that this is simply the way university works?”
Finally, Greinke protested that “If you care more about what happens to people over there than what happens to people here, you’re not being a representative of students here”. The motion passed almost unanimously.
Though demands made by ANUSA may not translate into action being taken by the ANU, Colwell noted that decisions such as this can contribute to long-term campaigns for change.
“Last year we saw 2,000 people sign a staff union petition saying ‘end the forced redundancies’, and then a few weeks later the Interim Vice-Chancellor announced over 100 jobs were going to be saved… it’s always a campaign that has to keep building.”
More to come.
*Names have been changed to protect the anonymity of students.
Graphics by Harry Dennis
Know something we don’t know? Email news@anuobserver.org or use our anonymous tip submission.
If you have an issue with this article, or a correction to make, you can contact us at news@anuobserver.org, submit a formal dispute, or angry react the Facebook post.
Want to get involved? You can write articles, photograph, livestream or do web support. We’re also looking for someone to yell “extra!” outside Davey Lodge at 1AM. Apply today!
ANU Observer 