Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the GSC Program would be extended to 13 companies and would have an updated performance framework. Photo: ADF.
The Australian defence industry will gain a significant boost with the expansion of the Federal Government’s Global Supply Chain (GSC) Program.
The number of defence ‘’prime’’ companies involved in the GSC Program has risen from eight to 13, a growth the government says delivers on the promises it made in February’s Defence Industry Development Strategy (DIDS).
It says the GSC Program is aimed at supporting Australian businesses to integrate into global supply chains, diversify their revenue, drive economies of scale and build resilience through exports. It says that since the program’s inception, it has delivered 2450 contracts worth more than $1.9 billion to 258 Australian suppliers.
The companies included in this year’s GSC Program are Babcock, BAE Systems, Boeing, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Kongsberg, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Moog, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Rheinmetall, SAAB and Thales.
As part of the expansion, the program has also updated its performance framework. This will include a plan to promote the scaling and growth of Australian businesses; an expanded scope of exports to consider the continuum between domestic and international projects; the identification of opportunities for Australian innovation early in the development cycle; and performance metrics to allow Defence to measure the success of primes and the program.
Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the government was proud to be continuing and expanding the GSC Program.
“Expanding the program will provide Australian businesses with greater access to the broader export markets and will increase opportunities to integrate into the international supply chains of the GSC Program partners,” he said.
“The Albanese Government understands just how important the growth and sustainability of the Australian defence industry are to meet our strategic needs and to also contribute to a future made in Australia.”
In a separate statement, Kongsberg Defence Australia (KDAu) and Kongsberg Maritime said being part of the GSC Program provided another opportunity for the company to contribute towards creating a resilient and competitive sovereign defence capability through Defence and commercial export opportunities.
Kongsberg Defence Australia managing Director John Fry said the company looked forward to identifying export opportunities for Australian companies. Photo: KDAu.
KDAu managing director John Fry said the program had successfully facilitated many contracts since its establishment, boosting the global competitiveness of many Australian suppliers.
“We are delighted to be one of the new primes selected as part of this program and look forward to identifying export opportunities for Australian suppliers to produce world-class and innovative defence capabilities in support of Kongsberg’s international supply chain,” Mr Fry said.
Northrop Grumman said it welcomed the opportunity to continue to support Australian industry with export opportunities as part of the GSC Program.
“Building sovereign industrial capability and creating export opportunities for Australian defence industry is a fundamental tenet of Northrop Grumman Australia’s industrial approach,” the company said in a LinkedIn post.
Another newcomer to the program, L3Harris, echoed the comments of other companies, with chief executive of L3Harris Technologies Australia Alan Clements saying on LinkedIn that the company was “excited and proud to be one of the new primes included” in the GSC Program under what he described as an expanded initiative “to assist Australian companies grow into the supply chain and markets throughout the world”.
