Page 119 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec-Jan 2023

DECEMBER 2022-JANUARY 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
FROM THE SOURCE PAT CONROY 119
LEFT: Australian Army personnel showcase a Bushmaster PMV to Indian Navy representatives during the Australian Defence Industries Showcase onboard HMAS Adelaide
ABOVE: The Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy meets with BAE Systems Australia apprentices during his first visit to the Henderson Maritime Complex in Western Australia
strategic way. That way, at the end of a decade-long process we have a stronger and deeper Australian industry capabil- ity that is much more focused on providing the capabilities most critical for the ADF.
Secondly, having greater opportunities for exports to supplement their Australian contracts and thirdly, one that has an ecosystem that has a greater number of medium sized Australian companies.
At the moment I call the Australian defence industry al- most hour-glass shaped. There’s a narrow group of primes, then it narrows considerably and there are a few Australian medium sized defence companies, and then it broadens out to a very big group of SMEs. One of my goals is to grow some of those small SMEs into medium enterprises that have great indigenous capabilities.
ADM: What ideas do you have for growing SMEs into medium enterprises?
MINISTER CONROY: I think there are a few ways we can do it and we’re looking at options. One is reforming the innovation chain, the innovation lifecycle. Just as I think that there are too many SICPs, I don’t think there’s a close enough link between our funding for innovation and what the warfighters actually need.
We’re planning on spending $3 billion on defence inno- vation over the next decade and in the past, I don’t think it’s been targeted well enough. When we support innovation, it has to lead to a capability that our warfighters need. At the end of a three-year grant, I don’t want to have an SME coming to me and saying, “Well Pat, that was a great proj- ect, we’ve hit the high notes, we’ve de-
veloped this technology but I’ve been
told by Defence no one wants my ca-
pability”. What I want is a much more
joined up lifecycle approach so that if
a technology is supported through an
Innovation Hub project, for example,
that there is scope for that to then lead
into funding through the capability
project lifecycle. That that technology
is then developed into a platform – or
an input into a platform – and the innovative SME grows through that process.
A classic example, because it’s the exception that proves the rule, is the way that governments of all persuasions have supported CEA over the last few decades. We made a con- scious decision that they had a capability that we needed, and it was supported across projects to grow a capability – and grow a very small company into a medium size enterprise.
ADM: So, it’s about more investment at the early stage of R&D and also a more a holistic approach to taking that and actually deliver a capability?
MINISTER CONROY: Yes absolutely, and to be frank, we need to be more realistic at the start of the process. It can’t
“WE NEED TO LINK OUR PRIORITIES MORE CLEARLY TO THE DEFENCE STRATEGIC REVIEW AND THE AUKUS PRIORITIES”
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