What it takes to develop an Australian sovereign guided weapons manufacturing capability

By Chris Jenkins, CEO Thales Australia 

Covid has delivered a sobering reminder that industrial capability considered optional in a world of ‘just in time’ global supply chains can suddenly become essential to have in-country.

Put simply, borders matter. Whether it’s medical or military equipment, the ability to manufacture and maintain in Australia is the key to sovereign industrial capability.

The upside is that a renewed national appreciation of the value of deep in-country industrial capability underpinning essential services has been accelerated by the pandemic.

The benefits of identifying and developing these key capabilities will flow for generations to come.

This is as true in Defence industry as other critical areas of supply.

The Government’s focus on long range strike and deterrence is backed by the big ambition to develop a sovereign guided weapons manufacturing capability.

As with any sovereign capability it won’t be conjured from a glossy brochure – it requires a disciplined focus on real capability, collaboration across an industrial ecosystem and enterprise commitments over generations.

Australia can achieve a sovereign guided weapons manufacturing capability, and sooner than many think, precisely because there has been decades of research, development and industrialisation of key enabling capabilities, including in the domain of energetic materials.

Thales Australia and the Defence Science and Technology group recently marked 25 years of a Strategic Research and Development Alliance with a focus on munitions and energetic materials.

Under the Alliance DST scientists and Thales engineers have collaborated on state of the art developments in munitions, new manufacturing technology for energetic materials and new product concepts.

Recently the RAAF started using the first Australian-manufactured munitions for the Joint Strike Fighter – just one of the success stories from this long collaboration.

In fact there is a continuous story of Australian guided weapons manufacture stretching back 70 years, and including IKARA, Penguin and right to the present day, the Nulka decoy.

That these solutions can be designed and manufactured in Australia provides assurance of supply of essential munitions required by the ADF to sustain operations in defence of Australia.

We are already working collaboratively with DSTG and a group of highly specialised Australian companies to demonstrate the ability of Australian industry to design and manufacture advanced rocket motor technologies  that will power the next generation high performance guided weapons.  

This work draws on the incredible technical expertise not only of our own team, but of smart Australian SME suppliers including Southern Launch, Airspeed, Mincham and Mackay Defence.

They are part of an industrial ecosystem supported by Thales that includes more than 800  Australian suppliers and deep research linkages with universities and DSTG.

A true sovereign guided weapons manufacturing capability will draw on all of this and much more.

Importantly it will require essential IP that can only come from the major guided weapons suppliers, notably the US companies that supply most of the ADF’s weapons.

Partnering with these Prime contractors to complement their know-how with real Australian industrial capability delivered from secure sites run to the highest safety standards, requires trust and long term commitment - the sort of trust and commitment reflected in the breakthrough last year of successfully qualifying Australian made TNT for use by the US military.

Defence can capitalise upstream and downstream from this core industrial capability.

Upstream, by drawing upon this extensive network of Australian suppliers to build resilience across other key areas of defence industry.

And by investing in continuous R & D and product development that also sustains the critical human capabilities in advanced engineering required to design, evolve and sustain sophisticated technology. 

Downstream because with all sophisticated solutions, the ability to apply the highest level technical and engineering capabilities when solutions need to be modified, particularly in response to something new on the battlefield, is an essential benefit of a true sovereign capability.

The capacity of a single company to generate all the new knowledge needed to create world leading defence capabilities is constrained, but by acting in collaboration with the wider innovation ecosystem the ADF can be assured that their solutions are the equal of any.

Advanced manufacturing is hard, particularly in an area as inherently dangerous and overlaid with the toughest IP and security protections as guided munitions.

Australia will need the brains and experience of its most capable to solve the challenging problems of science and engineering, and just as importantly, to establish the ways of working together that facilitate transition from the laboratory to the factory and to the battlefield.

Find out more about Thales Australia Sovereign Guided Weapons capability.