A strong sovereign defence industrial base remains essential to Australia’s security, economic resilience and ability to deter emerging threats across land, sea and cyber domains.
In 1942, as war edged toward Australia’s shores, thousands of local engineers and manufacturers were pulled into an unprecedented industrial push. Munitions factories sprang up almost overnight. Railway workshops were converted into precision manufacturing centres. Telecommunications innovators rewired the country’s signalling capabilities.
During this time, Australian industry adapted through innovation. With global supply lines strained, essential defence technologies that had long been imported were suddenly out of reach. Australian industry mobilised with speed and ingenuity. What that period proved was that when Australia needed sovereign industrial capability, our manufacturing sector didn’t just respond, it surged.
Today, as the strategic environment becomes more contested and technology cycles accelerate, Australian manufacturers are again being called upon to deliver sovereign capability. At Thales Australia, we see this everyday across defence, cyber security and advanced air services, where digitalisation, automation and sovereign design are reshaping what Australian industry can deliver. Meeting these demands is the great challenge of Australia’s manufacturing industry which may prove to be one of our nation’s greatest weapons.
Thales Australia’s operations across the country are examples of how next-generation manufacturing is no longer aspirational, it’s operational. The Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle, built in Bendigo, remains one of the clearest examples of world class Australian industrial output, produced for Australia and export customers.
Thales Australia has manufactured more than 1300 Bushmaster PMVs to the extent that the Bushmaster is more than a Protected Mobility Vehicle, it has become a symbol of Australian – and regional Australian – resilience and engineering excellence that is trusted by both our own defence force and our global allies.
And innovation continues to play a role in the ‘Bushie’. Today, the Bushmaster is a digitally connected platform integrating resilient communications, situational awareness tools, and modular mission payloads. An example of its evolution can be seen via the StrikeMaster, which uses the proven Bushmaster Utility variant as a launch platform for Kongsberg’s ‘twin pack’ Naval Strike Missile (NSM). This capability can provide a land-based maritime strike capability for Australia and our allies and is built locally, supporting the sovereign industrial base.
A land-based maritime-strike capability is crucial for an island nation whose economy and security depend on secure maritime approaches. This deterrence can only exist with a strong Australian manufacturing base.
Our industrial base can also provide undersea deterrence. Our regional undersea environment is now one of the most strategically contested domains in the world. Submarines, underwater drones, and quiet propulsion technologies are advancing rapidly, requiring more high-quality sensors to deliver timely and high-quality data.
Thales Australia offers an example of Australia’s advanced manufacturing evolution and capability in this field through the sonar and underwater systems developed at Thales’ global centre of excellence in Rydalmere, NSW.
The site has become an industrial cornerstone of the nation’s anti-submarine warfare capability, producing sophisticated sonar systems for the Royal Australian Navy and international partners. Thales develops and manufactures advanced sonar suites for submarines, autonomous uncrewed underwater vehicles and surface vessels, towed array and hull-mounted sonar systems, and sonar platforms for mine detection and obstacle avoidance. These are sovereign, cutting-edge systems that are built to deliver undersea superiority – high-quality sensors delivering high-quality data to allow the best decisions for the best outcomes. Anything less means handing the adversary the edge.
Modern defence manufacturing is no longer defined solely by metal, machining or assembly, it also sits where hardware meets cyber and digital. Sonar and underwater technologies are one such example of hardware, software, AI-driven analytics and cyber resilience intertwined and codeveloped.
In the modern battlespace, information can be as decisive as armour or firepower. Even the most physically durable military capability can be compromised if it is not protected by secure systems. The same applies to manufacturing OT systems.
Cyber-attacks can take down a tank or compromise a supply chain. Both could make our nation less secure.
Our Cyber mission takes into account the fact that data has become central to design as digitalisation becomes ubiquitous in manufacturing and other systems, including in defence. Internally, the growth of data-rich networked systems means protecting IP and ensuring security are increasingly important, while externally data vulnerabilities have emerged in subsea cables and satellites. Society wide, the consequence of cyber breaches are far greater for national security. Cyber-attacks on power, rail, road, transport and water will halt an economy.
This is where defence-grade cyber security capability can harden our systems and deny hostile cyber actors.
At Thales, we seek to face and repel the rapidly evolving threats, where state and non-state actors seek to disrupt civilian and military operations without firing a shot. As the only cyber security company in the country with defence-grade capabilities, that means working closely with government and trusted Australian companies.
Across domains – oceans, land, sky, and cyber – we seek to provide sovereign capabilities and solutions for defence and civilian partners and customers. It means we help secure our nation and support thousands of skilled jobs on shore – a veritable industrial army.
Just as Australia transformed itself in the 1940s to meet an urgent need, today’s strategic environment demands another surge, one defined not just by mass production, but by precision.
Australia has the ingenuity, the talent and the sovereign capability to meet any challenge, and to define the future of Australian industry.
