Minister's Message
Australian Minister for Defence Message
The Hon Richard Marles MP
Minister for Defence, Australia
The publication of the Australian and New Zealand Defence Directory comes at a time of significant global challenges.
War has returned to Europe with Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Within the Indo-Pacific, we are seeing increased strategic competition between major powers, military build-up unaccompanied by transparency or reassurance, and a growing prevalence of coercive grey-zone activities.
The lessons we draw from Europe are profound, particularly as we look to our own region.
The war in Ukraine reminds us that we cannot purely rely on economic interdependence to deter conflict. And that deterrence can fail when one country’s determined military build-up creates an imbalance of military power from which it concludes that the benefits of conflict outweigh the risks – as was Russia’s perilously wrong deduction.
Today the investments that Australia and our allies and partners make in the area of deterrence will help contribute cumulatively to upholding the rules-based international order, to maintaining an effective balance of military power, and to ensuring the Indo-Pacific remains stable, peaceful and prosperous.
Deterrence is a major focus of the Australian Government for our defence planning under the leadership of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
We are revitalising our historically deep engagement in the region, especially in the Pacific and in Southeast Asia, by entering into a new era of collaboration with our regional partners and neighbours.
The Australian Government is committed to pushing forward with plans to equip the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with the capabilities outlined in the 2020 Defence Strategic Update, notably, long-range and precision strike weapons, offensive and defensive cyber, and area denial systems.
We have also committed to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS partnership, as well as to accelerating capability development with the United States and United Kingdom in key areas of jointly held expertise, including quantum technology, artificial intelligence, undersea warfare, advanced cyber, electronic warfare and hypersonics and counter-hypersonics.
But what matters most in contributing to deterrence and delivering defence capabilities for the ADF is the strength and standing of Australia’s defence industry.
After all, Australia is home to some of the world’s most innovative and technologically advanced capabilities, many of which are used by the ADF and exported for use by overseas customers.
The Government wants to lift the profile of Australia’s defence industry on the world stage and give it the strategic rationale which has been lacking over the past decade.
In this, there are opportunities to create new partnerships with New Zealand’s defence industry given the shared challenges we face and our mutual objectives.
For Australia, we need to strengthen our sovereign capabilities, bolster our manufacturing, and create new local jobs.
When we do these things we not only invest in our self-reliance and sovereign defence industrial base upon which the ADF relies, but we also position our defence industry to integrate further into the industrial bases and global supply chains of our partners and allies.
This, in turn, will translate into opportunities to enhance our defence industry’s reputation, to export Australian products and skills and, most importantly, to contribute towards collective efforts to deter and respond to conflict.
This Government will build on the successes to date through an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary approach to our defence industry policies and support programs.
We will undertake a Defence Force Posture Review to ensure that the ADF’s units, assets and facilities are best prepared to deal with our current and future strategic circumstances. We anticipate that the findings from this review will provide new certainty and direction for industry.
The Government will develop a Defence Industry Development Strategy to clearly articulate our objectives.
And under our $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to drive investment in projects across the country to boost economic development, defence capability will be an important area of focus.
The continuing shocks from the Global Financial Crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the enduring war in Ukraine have reinforced the magnifying consequences of our interconnectedness, the vulnerabilities inherent in international supply chains, and the need for nations to develop sovereign capabilities.
These times compel us to build and maintain a more robust, resilient and internationally competitive sovereign defence industrial base for our nation’s prosperity and the region’s security.
This is what the Albanese Government is doing and it is why we are pleased to support the latest edition of this Directory – because it will help create new collaborations between Australia and New Zealand’s defence industries.
The Hon Richard Marles MP
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Defence
Ministerial Message
The Hon Pat Conroy MP
Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery
Australia’s defence industry is essential to our national security and a key sector of the Australian economy.
I firmly believe 2024 will come to be seen as the year Australia came to terms with the changes in our strategic environment and charted a path to a more secure future, underpinned by a strong and sovereign defence industrial base.
The National Defence Strategy (NDS) released by the Government earlier this year outlines a new approach to the defence of Australia that involves shifting the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to an integrated, focused force that is designed and equipped to address our most significant strategic risks.
These foundational reforms are backed by a generational investment in our nation’s defence, including $330 billion for the rebuilt Integrated Investment Program (IIP) over the decade to 2033-34.
The Defence Industry Development Strategy (DIDS) establishes the framework and principles for the defence industry policy we need to deliver the goals of the NDS and IIP.
For the first time, an Australian Government has articulated the strategic rationale for a sovereign defence industrial base and outlined a master plan to deliver it.
Australia’s national security requires a strong and sovereign defence industrial base that includes businesses of all sizes. More than 100,000 workers rely on Australia’s defence industry for their livelihoods, and the DIDS establishes a focused plan of action to develop and grow the industrial base we need to support a strong and sustainable ADF.
Prioritisation is at the heart of the Government’s strategy. We have focused on supporting the development of what we need here in Australia, and provided industry with information it needs to prepare, invest and deliver on the development, production and sustainment of Defence capabilities.
Unlike the priorities of the past, the Sovereign Defence Industrial Priorities (SDIPs) outlined in the DIDS have both a capability manager and delivery manager whose job it is to ensure they are healthy and being supported.
The DIDS includes actions to tackle the most critical issues that defence industry is grappling with, from upskilling and growing the workforce to uplifting security and boosting the resilience of supply chains.
Many of these require a whole-of-government effort, and Defence is working across government and with the states and territories to deliver a coherent and coordinated response. We understand that industry needs support to respond to these challenges, and to deliver that support we have established a streamlined Defence Industry Development Grants program with $150 million in funding.
The grant program has been designed to help small to medium-sized businesses grow their capacity to contribute to the delivery of the SDIPs, pursue export opportunities, upskill their workforce and strengthen security.
At the same time, we are also ensuring that Defence becomes a better customer by reforming procurement processes to make it easier, faster and more cost-effective for industry to compete for and secure Defence contracts.
The diminishing of Australia’s strategic warning time makes speed to capability essential to delivering Defence’s mission. The Government has decided to accelerate major defence capability acquisitions to meet these strategic challenges. Record amounts of funding are flowing from Defence into Australian defence industry as a result, and employment within the sector is growing.
For instance, we are accelerating production of the cutting-edge Ghost Shark program, which will provide Navy with a long-range autonomous vehicle that will deliver a cost-effective and persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike undersea capability.
The Government is co-investing an additional $20.1 million alongside Anduril Australia, which will contribute to scaling the sovereign supply chain and building the requisite infrastructure to transition the Ghost Shark program from prototype development to production.
This early works contract will facilitate investment into the Australian industry supply chain so it can grow and scale alongside Anduril Australia. As many as 42 Australian companies are part of the Ghost Shark supply chain.
Our largest capability projects, from delivering a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet to implementing AUKUS, are also being accelerated, and Australian industry is at the centre of our plans.
In January, the Government announced its plan to begin manufacturing Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System missiles from 2025. This is an important step in deepening our Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance enterprise, by facilitating the transfer of technical data from the US and building the technical skills of the Australian workforce.
In February, we released our blueprint for a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet for the Royal Australian Navy. Our commitment to Navy’s future fleet guarantees the future of continuous naval shipbuilding in Australia by providing a stable and ongoing pipeline of work to the 2040s and beyond.
We’ve committed to build six Hunter Class Frigates in South Australia, and in June we cut the first piece of steel for the first frigate in the class. This kicks off the construction phase of the Hunter Class Frigate Program that will run for 20 years.
At its peak, this program will support around 3,000 direct jobs and a further 5,000 indirect jobs across the Australian supply chain. Australian small and medium sized enterprises have already been contracted to supply materials, equipment and parts like valves, steel, pipes, cable and ships’ furniture for the first three Hunter Class Frigates. It’s an important signal of the vital importance of Australian industry involvement in this program across all its elements, which is essential to the development of our naval shipbuilding industrial base.
Likewise, as the Government continues to make tangible progress on implementing the AUKUS trilateral security partnership. Australian industry involvement in the construction, maintenance and sustainment of our conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability is developing at pace.
The Australian Submarine Agency’s Industry Portal is open for businesses from every state and territory to register their interest.
A huge body of work is underway with our AUKUS partners to develop vendor and product qualification processes to enable Australian industry to participate in US and UK industrial bases. This work is essential to our effort to enhance the resilience of trilateral supply chains. By pinpointing our partners’ long lead-time procurement requirements and developing supplier-qualification processes, we can effectively support Australian businesses to integrate into the UK and US supply chains.
Already, we have seen Australian steel manufacturer Bisalloy join the supply chain of Newport News Shipbuilding and secure an initial purchase order.
This success represents the outcomes we are pursuing as we work with our partners to achieve a seamless defence industrial base.
Meanwhile, under Pillar II of AUKUS we are seeing collaboration between innovators from Australia, the UK and the US that is driving the delivery of advanced capabilities for the benefit of all three nations.
The first in a series of AUKUS Innovation Challenges, focusing on electronic warfare, has been launched through the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator to showcase innovative solutions from industry and research organisations.
The Government recognises the importance of defence exports for Australia and for the resilience of the sovereign defence industrial base. Exports are important for industry because they provide diversity in revenue sources and they are important for Government because they increase industrial capability and capacity to support Defence.
In early 2024, Australia entered into the largest defence export agreement in our nation’s history with the signing of a contract for the production of armoured vehicles for the German Army.
Over 100 Boxer Heavy Weapon Carrier vehicles will be built at Rheinmetall Defence Australia’s Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence in Queensland, with the first Australian built vehicle to be delivered in 2026.
This historic contract secures 600 direct jobs and is worth more than $1 billion to Australia’s economy.
Government-to-government sales like this one as well as direct commercial sales will continue to be important, but we are also focused on developing further opportunities to integrate Australian companies into global supply chains.
Fulfilling the commitment we made in the DIDS, we have significantly expanded the Global Supply Chain program, almost doubling the number of participating prime contractors from seven to 13. This includes expansion of the performance framework to keep the program accountable, its results measurable, and its functions laser-focused on enabling the growth of Australian defence businesses.
This is a time of immense opportunity for Australia’s defence industrial base.
From the great nation-building projects like AUKUS and the national naval shipbuilding enterprise, to the establishment of domestic manufacture of guided weapons, explosive ordnance and munitions, to the development of cutting-edge technologies and systems, there are opportunities across Defence that will require the support of Australian industry to ensure they succeed.
Australia’s defence industry is an essential partner in keeping Australians safe at home, secure in the world and employed in well-paid, high-skilled jobs.
Within the pages of the Australian + New Zealand Defence Directory, the listings reflect the dynamism and depth of expertise to be found across our defence industrial base.
It gives me great pleasure to show my ongoing support for the Directory and the remarkable Australian defence industry capabilities that it highlights.
The Hon Pat Conroy MP
Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery
Minister for International Development and the Pacific
