The past 12 months have been extremely successful for the Defence Export Unit (DEU). Operating under “Team Australia” (an initiative between the Australian Government and Industry in promoting Australia’s innovative defence and security technologies overseas) were successful in facilitating a number of Australian companies achieving partnering agreements at international events.

In 2008, Team Australia had a number of successful missions to the following places:

Singapore
19-24 Feb 2008

The DEU’s Team Australia participation at the Singapore Air Show resulted in 10 companies receiving orders for their products and services. This was the first exhibition where the DEU was able to bring Austrade, DIISR, four State government departments of industry and economic development to be partners in the same team. The cooperation and collaboration of the government departments in a whole of government exercise proved to be successful, as each group brought its own expertise and network to bear for the success of individual companies.

India
8-18 April 2008
The mission included 14 Victorian Aerospace companies and DEU was requested to help organise meetings for some of these companies with the Indian Government, Indian Defence organisations and civil industries / companies.  DEU representatives were MAJGEN Mike Fairweather and GPCAPT Brent Crowhurst. The DEU, through General Fairweather, was instrumental in providing opportunities for a number of the attending companies and the Australian Defence Attache to obtain meetings with the senior staff of the India Ministry of Defence. 

United Kingdom, Spain, France and Germany
14-25 July 2008
The Trade Mission included 18 Australian companies, all involved in the Aerospace industry.  The Mission coincided with the Farnborough Airshow. The focus of the first week of the mission was to ensure each of the Australian companies had one-on-one meetings with the major primes and the Tier 1 suppliers to the global primes.

As a result, a number of agreements have now been signed to investigate future work.  Two companies, Lovett Engineering and Production Parts signed work with Pratt & Whitney for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.

One of the smaller Australian companies, PHM Technology signed agreements with IAI, Thales and Raytheon for possible inclusion of their technology into future programs.  PHM has also entered pilot programs with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

United States
September 2008
The Association of the US Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition was attended by 11 Australian companies that covered areas from electronics and communications to security and weapons.

There were a number of achievements including:

• Lunar Lighting: attracting a potential distributor who bought the display they brought over and an order for 500 sets of lights from the US Army. 
• BisAlloy steel also reported that they had at least one major order. 
• Metal Storm had access to personnel interested in their new product who had never heard of their technology or development, and have sold an evaluation system of their quad barrel grenade launcher. 
• CODAN, PDL Toll and C4i all reported new agreements and opportunities with some possible, very short term results.

The DEU was also present at the Singapore Airshow, Farnborough in the UK and Defence Services Asia Malaysia, Modern Day Marine. “The DEU has proven its ability to link local Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) into the global supply chain. These trade missions are crucial in developing and maintaining networks worldwide,” says Terry Whelan, Head of the DEU.

“I am very proud of the work my unit is doing and am looking forward to seeing what successes we have for other SMEs in 2009,” said Mr Whelan.

For more information about the DEU or to contact the unit directly visit www.defence.gov.au/dmo/about/domains/deu.cfm

A snapshot of 2008

March: Through Lunar Lighting the provision of lighting for Base camps and engineering services with the US Army and US Marines worth $7 million.

April: Through Thales Australia, additional Bushmasters were provided to the Netherlands Army worth $16 million.

July: Through Pratt and Whitney, the Head of Defence Export Unit witnessed the signing of an agreement for production parts to provide specialised components for the life Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) worth $113 million. This was a result of considerable work and advocacy by the JSF Industry group headed by Mike Lyons, within AVM John Harvey’s NACC project team

August: Through PDL Toll, a contract to supply fuel to the Italian Navy for the next two years was won.

October: Through BisAlloy, orders for the Specialised Armour Plate from US companies worth $15 million.

October: Through the trade mission to AUSA, C41 received a contract to provide a number of their specialised Communication Switches and subsequent support for delivery prior to the end of December 2008 worth $10 million.