Flight Lieutenant Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Watts was raised in Brisbane, Queensland, before joining the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 2016 as an Armament Engineering Officer. Flight Lieutenant Watts attended the Australian Defence Force Academy, graduating with a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering (with Honours) in December 2019. She is a published author in the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) Journal and presented at the 2019 AAEE international conference.
Charlie currently holds the position of Strike Integrated Product Team Project Engineer. Since the commencement of this posting, she has worked closely with the U.S. Air Force to deliver safety, performance and capability advice to Director General Air Combat Capability (DG-ACC). At the conclusion of her posting to AWESQN she was awarded the Tim Kent Hughes award for excellence in air armament.
Charlie wishes to research the current Australian federal space policy gap which fails to define and delineate the remits and responsibilities of the Australian Space Agency (ASA) and the ADF. As a result, the space programs from the civilian and military sectors are unregulated (with the exception of launches and returns) and are not integrated to exploit the available efficiencies, lacking a Whole of Government approach to support national power. This lack of rigour is delaying meaningful contributions to current international efforts towards rules based order and responsible use of space.