BREAKING DOWN DEFENCE BARRIERS

Words by Darwin Innovation Hub Published 19 July 2022

German Navy warship FGS Bayern sails alongside HMAS Glenelg during their joint officer of the watch manoeuvring exercises held in the Timor Sea. *** Local Caption *** HMAS Glenelg has conducted an in-company sail with German Navy warship FGS Bayern. The Armidale Class Patrol Boat and Brandenburg Class Frigate operated together in the waters north of Darwin during Bayern's ongoing deployment to the Indo-Pacific. They conducted maritime manoeuvres, ship-to-ship communications and practiced professional mariner skills common to both navies. Bayern left its homeport at Wilhelmshaven on Germany's North Sea coast in early August and recently spent a week visiting Western Australia.

BREAKING DOWN DEFENCE BARRIERS

Defence procurement is a challenging landscape and can be quite overwhelming to industry.

These challenges add further barriers to entry for business owners, innovators and entrepreneurs looking to break into the market.

With the growing appetite both within the Department of Defence and the Australian Government to bolster sovereign capabilities, these barriers to entry need to be broken down and removed.

With the global security climate as it is, Australia needs to be able to rely on its own capabilities to secure its own end-to-end supply chain.

To this end, SMEs involved in the Defence space need to be “Defence-ready”.

Training and education is needed to support industry to be prepared for present and future opportunities.

Collaboration across Defence and industry bodies is required to support this.

This is even more relevant in the north, and specifically the Northern Territory. Being a remote location that services a large Defence presence there is scope to increase capability and the NT’s ability to service Defence.

The 2020 Defence Strategic Update requests more durable supply chain arrangements and strengthened sovereign industrial capabilities to enhance the ADF’s self-reliance.

To achieve this in the NT, the Darwin Innovation Hub is undertaking a project to bring the relevant stakeholders together to workshop what is required to build resilience, mitigate risk, secure end-to-end supply chain and bolster sovereign capabilities in the North Territory.

Defence and Defence primes have a requirement for a program that supports the development of industry but is also trusted as the reference point for Defence-ready companies.

A certification that qualifies and then promotes Defence readiness would go a long way to achieving this.

There is a willingness in the NT to support Defence due to the long-term presence that Defence has had in the north.

This does not necessarily translate to capability, though. A program that takes the learnings of industry, the requirements of Defence and primes and packages them together into a Defence readiness program could have an immediate impact in bolstering sovereign capabilities in the north and in the NT.