Australian procurement relations boosted

A visit from the UK Secretary of State for Defence has highlighted the Australian Defence’s intent to work more closely with the UK on defence procurement.

The Australian Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith, hosted his UK counterpart, Dr Liam Fox, on a visit to Defence facilities and defence industry in Adelaide.

“Australia and the UK can benefit from our defence industry relationship and from greater collaboration on the procurement of similar defence capabilities,” Mr Smith said.

The Ministers visited BAE Systems Australia, the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) facilities and the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO).

“Our visit to BAE today provided the opportunity to highlight the importance of the relationships between BAE Plc and BAE Systems to the Defence Forces of both countries,” Mr Smith said. 

“BAE is our biggest defence contractor and is involved in supporting Defence across every industry sector, including the $8 billion AWD project, ship repair and maintenance in Western Australia; aircraft maintenance and support at Williamtown and Nowra in NSW, and Oakey and Townsville in Queensland,” he said.

Mr Smith said the bilateral defence talks had been very successful and he was keen to show Dr Fox the defence industry procurement and capability in SA.

The ministers had agreed they would discuss the possibility of Australia either buying or leasing from the UK an amphibious landing vessel, which is used to land and support ground forces.

Australia has ordered a number of the vessels from Spain, but they will not be ready until 2015.

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