By Peter Roberts Korea’s Hanwha defence group has abandoned its takeover bid for Australia’s most successful indigenous owned defence manufacturer Austal, according to media reports this morning. The takeover was ended in a letter to Austal from Hanwha Ocean CEO Hyek Woong Kwon titled ‘Termination of discussions with Austal’. The company blamed Austal’s ‘insistence’ that…
Laser-based anti-drone system maker AIM Defence has expanded into a 4000 sqm facility to support the manufacture and export of AIM’s Fractl Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-UAS) laser. The new facility will house a skilled team of researchers, scientists, and engineers from a range of disciplines and will support the ramp up in production of…
The federal government has signed a $142 million contract with Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace to acquire the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) air-launched cruise missile from 2025. The JSM is designed to allow the missile to fit into the F-35A Lightning II internal weapon bay, preserving the aircraft’s stealth characteristics. With a range of…
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles has opened the $170 million Hanwha Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence (H-ACE). Located at the Avalon Airport Precinct in Victoria, the facility will manufacture the Huntsman and Redback families of armoured vehicles. Space is provided for suppliers to locate on site to make vehicles for…
The three AUKUS nations Australia, the UK and the US have established an export licence-free environment, opening up investment and export opportunities for industry. Defence Minister Richard Marles first raised the possibility of removing barriers to procurement, investment, information and data sharing systems, and export requirements with the government in 2022, and described today’s announcement…
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have signed an agreement in Washington (pictured) clearing the way for Australia’s import of Virginia class nuclear submarines. The agreement for Cooperation Related to Naval Nuclear Propulsion was tabled in federal parliament today. The agreement also enables the import of equipment for the later construction at the…
Defence Minister Richard Marles has announced that Australia will join the Drone Coalition which includes Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, Poland and Latvia.. The coalition aims is to provide one million drones to Ukraine – here is the joint statement of coalition defence ministers in full. “We, nations of…
The federal government has announced Australia’s largest single military assistance package to Ukraine worth nearly $250 million. At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, met with Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskyy alongside Indo-Pacific Four (IP4) partners. Marles ‘reaffirmed Australia’s commitment to standing…
The federal government has said there will be ‘significant opportunities’ for industry in a decision to invest $2 billion in a Top Secret (TS) Cloud. The TS Cloud will be built in a strategic partnership between the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deliver resilient information, communication and technology (ICT) systems.…
The federal government has announced the next stage in the development of continuous naval ship building with commencement of the construction of the first of six planned Hunter Class Frigates. This milestone was marked today by the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and the Premier of South Australia Peter Malinauskas cutting the first piece of…