Page 26 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

26 DEFENCE BUSINESS NTIB
MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
BUILDING A RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAIN
Following our look at potential opportunities for Australia’s defence industry under
The AUSMIN Defence Acquisition Committee (ADAC) agreement in the March-April issue of ADM, this month we take a look at a further initiative that may provide additional work.
NIGEL PITTAWAY | MELBOURNE
THE US National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB) is intended to harness the industries of close partners – in this case Canada, the UK and Australia – to build resilient supply chains and though this has arguably yet to reach its full potential, there are nominal opportunities for local in- dustry participation. To find out more, ADM recently spoke with Stephen Moore, First Assistant Secretary Defence In- dustry Policy.
NTIB DESCRIBED
The NTIB was created in 1993 as a means of recognising that there is benefit from building resilient supply chains with trusted partners, with Canada as the first partner in the enterprise, and was ultimately expanded in 2017 to in- clude the UK and Australia in the legislative definition.
Essentially it is a way of defining the US industrial base and the inclusion of three of the four ‘Five Eyes’ partners comes with the aim of utilising the respective industrial bases to plug gaps and vulnerabilities in the supply chains. According to Defence’s description, the intent of NTIB is the integration of the industrial bases of the partner coun- tries with the US.
“Defence is working to give greater effect to this by mini- mising barriers to collaboration,” the department said in a statement to ADM. “This is a long-term endeavour that will
deliver future opportunities for Australian defence indus- try businesses to participate in the US market.”
However, it is important to note that the NTIB in itself is not a procurement mechanism and nor is it intended to be a platform from which to lobby US companies. Defence says that collaborating with like-minded partners will of- fer opportunities to share resources and expertise, thereby reducing risk and potentially accelerating ‘mutually benefi- cial outcomes’.
The importance of such collaboration was underscored by the 2021 AUSMIN talks, which highlighted the need for resilient supply chains.
MISCONCEPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Stephen Moore says the initial intention of the NTIB was to link the organisations and people involved in national se- curity, including research and development, production and sustainment capabilities of the respective industrial bases.
“It was a statement of priority at the political level in many regards. It has some teeth, but it didn’t consider things like export controls or other information sharing, procurement and investment policies that existed within the US, such as ‘Buy American’. It really was a statement at the time recognising that there was a need to expand industrial base collaboration,” he says.
“More broadly it is a statement of intent which then asked US officials to go and think about how the NTIB could be implemented.”
But while many expected the floodgates would open for Australian companies in the US marketplace, there are still barriers and Moore says Defence is working with the US to work through the issues and overcome those where possible.
“We are having successes and the US does look to Aus- tralia for some key defence technology. The defence indus- trial sector in this country has some really great offerings that have been picked up over time and I would like to see more of those,” he adds.
Examples of such work are Chemring Australia, which in early 2020 won a $107.5 million contract to supply coun- termeasure flares for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program; and Lynas Rare Earths which has been awarded a contract
RUAG AUSTRALIA