The Defence Export Strategy (the Strategy) builds upon the Australian Government's defence industry policy by setting out a comprehensive system to plan, guide and measure defence export outcomes.
The government recognises that Australian industry cannot sustain itself on the needs of the Australian Defence Force alone. New markets and opportunities to diversify are required to help unlock the full potential of Australian defence industry to grow, innovate and support Defence’s future needs. Exports will provide our defence industry with greater certainty of future investment and support high-end manufacturing jobs for Australians for generations to come.
In support of this strategic goal, the government’s ambition is to achieve the following five objectives by 2028:
- strengthen the partnership between the Australian Government and industry to pursue defence export opportunities
- sustain Australia's defence industrial capabilities across peaks and troughs in domestic demand
- enable greater innovation and productivity in Australia's defence industry to deliver world-leading Defence capabilities
- maintain the capability edge of the Australian Defence Force and leverage Defence capability development for export opportunities
- grow Australia's defence industry to become a top ten global defence exporter.
The Strategy brings together all of the levers available to government, Defence and industry to provide end-to-end support for defence exports, from building export readiness, to identifying export opportunities, and ultimately realising export outcomes.
The Strategy provides $20 million in additional annual funding from 2018-19 to support Australia’s defence exports. A new Australian Defence Export Office will be created within the Department of Defence to provide a focal point for defence exports and drive implementation of the Strategy.