The current and future threat environment in which the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) will operate is becoming increasingly congested, lethal and asymmetric. To ensure that the Australian Defence Force 'keeps pace' with the industrial and commercial sectors while remaining ahead of its adversaries, there needs to be a constantly evolving, agile capability program that leverages from the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0. Defence industry has historically driven a significant number of the cutting-edge technologies that are used every day - from canned foods through to the internet. Ever more advanced technologies are becoming prevalent in areas of operations and regions of interest. The tempo at which these threat systems can emerge is a significant challenge to RAN's ability to acquire, certify, commission and employ capabilities that effectively counter the threats before they can evolve. The acquisition system of the future must be agile and minimally impacted by unnecessary complexity, inconsistent application of policy, or industry engagement limitations. This paper presents a tiered framework for capability acquisition that matches the exponential growth of technological capacity. Defence 4.0 is a paradigm shift in the way capability is employed and generated. This framework has been modelled around the OODA loop and is comprised by the following four pillars: 1) Observe - Technology Intelligence Horizon Scanning, 2) Orient - Test and Evaluation, 3) Decide - Rapid Acquisition Process, and 4) Act - Deployment of Solution.
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