AusTrade and Team Defence Australia have launched the latest white paper by defence sector engineering, professional services, and business advisory consultancy ADROITA, at the United States Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in Maryland in the United States, where ADROITA is part of the Team Defence Australia official delegation.
The white paper is called Micro-Partnerships in the Age of AUKUS and was written by ADROITA’s Founder and CEO, Sarah Pavillard. It outlines how Australian, American and British small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) can form global micro-partnerships to be stronger together and flourish in the Australian defence sector while strengthening global security. It is an urgent call to action for AUKUS SME businesses to collaborate, cooperate, and co-work to deliver on the promise of the AUKUS nation-to-nation mega-partnership.
“Whether in Australia, the US, or the UK, it is clear that each industrial base is challenged in terms of capability and capacity to delivery on the promise of AUKUS. SMEs are the engine rooms of these economies. Going forward, they will be key enabler of AUKUS – but they also need to be enabled by the regulatory and policy settings of all three countries,” Ms Pavillard said.
The paper also highlights how AUKUS-enabled micro-partnerships must scale up to deliver outcomes and take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to grow revenue, capability, and employment among the Australian, British and American defence sectors while contributing to a safer, more stable, and more prosperous Indo-Pacific.
“Australia needs the specialist skills, experience, and expertise of American and British defence industry specialists to help us create the infrastructure, transfer the knowledge, and staff the defence programs and projects and develop the AUKUS Pillar Two capability that the country needs to make AUKUS work,” Ms Pavillard said, “This will benefit Australian businesses as well as they transfer overseas expertise in-country in partnership, rather than as competition.”
The white paper discusses the value of local partners tapping into global expertise, the importance of the AUKUS agreement and how it will reshape Australia’s defence industry, and highlights the challenges that international companies will face when they try to enter the Australian market.
“The AUKUS agreement heralds abundant opportunities based on the premise of a more seamless industrial base that is shared between the partners, while the Australian demand for skilled workers with defence expertise continues to grow year-on-year as the industry expands,” Ms Pavillard said.
Sea-Air-Space is the largest maritime exposition in the United States and is attended by more than 15,000 American defence industry and key Department of Defense decision-makers. The exposition represents a significant opportunity for ADROITA to establish new relationships with American defence companies that are looking to partner and enter the Australian market in line with the existing strategic business advisory service that ADROITA provides to Australian SMEs who are seeking to do the same.
The white paper can be downloaded here.