Special Report: The company’s team of expert engineers will spend the next three months working on their artifical intelligence and robotics technoogy to help bolster Australia’s defence and national security interests.

The Australian Department of Defence has set up a program to work with the best and brightest in deep tech — robotics and artificial intelligence.

And the ASX-listed Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) is set to benefit via its involvement through fully-owned subsidiary Stealth Technologies.

Led by a team of research engineers with PhD’s in AI and robotics, Stealth Technologies will commence research as part of the ON Prime: Defence Program.

The program is run by the DoD’s defence, science and technology (DST) department as part of the Next Generation Technologies Fund — a $730m fund focused on “emerging and future technologies”.

Through its participation in the program, Stealth Technologies will get the opportunity to test out technology pathways with defence sector customers and develop products for market fit.

The company also gets to retain 100 per cent of the intellectual property it develops. The ON Prime program starts today and runs for the next three months.

The move is part of a broader commitment by the federal government to spend $3 billion on equipment for Australia’s Special Forces, with local companies set to play a key role in the provision of advanced defence systems.

The news comes on the back of Stealth Technologies recently announced collaboration with US technology giant Honeywell.

Strategic Elements managing director Charles Murphy said working within the program will “dramatically improve our defence technology capabilities and development of end-user business cases”.

Shares in the company have almost doubled since the start of July, and shot higher last week after the company signed the Honeywell deal.

“The directors of Strategic Elements and the in-house development team have invested an incredible amount of time and effort, and we look forward to the busy and formative period ahead,” Murphy said.