The Returned & Services League of Australia (RSL) says Australia must urgently encourage the development of a locally based major defence industry. In a paper prepared for its Defence and National Security Committee, titled Building a Sustainable Sovereign Industrial Defence Capability, the RSL is calling on successive Commonwealth Governments to have greater ambition for the Australian Defence industry. It says that Australia must aspire to develop one or more large Tier 1 national security and defence and advanced manufacturing industry player. In industry jargon, these businesses are known as Defence Primes.
The RSL Defence and National Security Committee is chaired by Lieutenant General Peter Leahy AC (Retd) and the paper’s lead author is Vice Admiral Peter Jones AO DSC RAN (Retd). RSL National President Greg Melick said the Australian Government had embarked on a major reorientation of Defence policy, Australian Defence Force (ADF) capabilities and Defence industry policy settings.
“The RSL believes that the new policy settings, could be further strengthened to better enable Australia’s ability to defend itself in any sustained conflict through the creation of one or more Australian Tier 1 national security and advanced manufacturing prime system integrators, or Australian Defence Prime,” Melick said. “Our paper contends that the absence of even one Australian Defence Prime has led to poor project outcomes, particularly in the naval sector. It has also resulted in billions of dollars needlessly going offshore at the expense of Australian jobs and national resilience. Unless the creation of Australian Defence Primes is fostered, Australia will likely be in the top five global importers of arms for decades to come.”
The paper highlights Sweden with a smaller population and economy has a viable national Prime in the form of Saab that is delivering capability generally quicker and cheaper to that nation’s Defence force.
The RSL contends that bi-partisan support is needed for the development of Australian Defence Primes. It says the timing of this much needed initiative is opportune as many Australian small Defence businesses struggle to make the policy course change. In addition, large sums will be offshored under the various AUKUS initiatives unless Australian Defence Primes are created.
To enable the ADF to best accommodate the SSN submarine fleet with the least adverse impact on the rest of the ADF it will be important to encourage equipment standardisation, evolved designs and locally resilient supply chains. This should be another driver for the creation and support of the Australian Defence Primes.
Melick said a viable Australian Defence industry was essential for the defence and security of the nation. “Australia needs to return to a position where it does have its own national Defence Primes so that it can have a truly robust capability that can deliver capability to the ADF in a steady, cost-effective way with managed schedule and cost risks. This should be an expectation of every Australian taxpayer. It is something that other G-20 economies take as a given,” he said.
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The one thing this proposal fails to take into consideration is the Politics involved in procurement, the single mindedness of ADF top brass to operate only U.S. made equipment above all else and the Myopic C.A.S.G that seems to be in thrall of U.S. Defence Lobbyists.Such a shame that this will probably sit on some Department Heads desk until it’s covered in dust ( fingers crossed I’m wrong) , Because all the things proposed are doable, all it would take is commitment to make it happen.
I agree – and Australia spends about as much on Defence as those three countries combined.
Turkey has Aselsan, Norway has Kongsberg and Sweden has Saab. What does Australia have? I don’t think the government should be in the business of picking winners, but the fostering of Australian defence industry to become “primes” is a win for sovereignty, resilience and eventually economics.