The defence business is booming down under, driven by geopolitical security concerns across the Indo-Pacific and the trilateral AUKUS security agreement between Australia, the UK and the USA.
American military systems integrator Sierra Nevada (SNC) is moving to capitalise on the enthusiasm, recently opening its first Australian subsidiary, based in Adelaide.
“The Commonwealth of Australia is really in an ascending role in the Indo-Pacific area,” says Stu Wildman, SNC’s senior vice-president of business development.
SNC was already supporting several local acquisition programmes, including the fielding of Boeing P-8A maritime patrol jets and Northrop Grumman MQ-4C remotely piloted aircraft to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), when it made the decision to open up shop in Adelaide.
With the Nevada-headquartered company already having a subsidiary in the UK, the 2022 AUKUS agreement created strong incentive to expand that footprint into Australia.
Although the pact is best known for its promise to deliver nuclear submarine capability to Canberra, the so-called second pillar of AUKUS provides for the sharing of sensitive technologies between the three partners, including artificial intelligence, autonomy, hypersonic flight and electronic warfare.
Australia now stands to benefit, not just by gaining access to better imports, but also by improving its own domestic production capability.
“The Commonwealth is making significant efforts to develop and enhance their defence industrial base,” Wildman notes.
While those efforts may previously have been hampered by export licensing requirements, US firms like SNC can now share some of their previously restricted technologies more freely with Australia and the UK.
Wildman says the USA will also benefit from the transfers, noting Australia has several firms possessing global expertise in electronic warfare battle management.
While the submarines covered under the first pillar of AUKUS will still take years to deliver, the benefits of deeper industrial integration will manifest more immediately. Having personnel based in Adelaide will allow SNC to circumvent the oft remarked upon “tyranny of distance” that affects both military and business operations spanning the vast Pacific Ocean.
“By being there we can essentially project our presence, both logistically and technologically, into Australia,” Wildman notes.
The company’s new office is located at the Lot 14 industrial hub in central Adelaide, home to other defence companies and start-ups. The city also hosts a major university and RAAF Base Edinburgh – home to the RAAF’s 09 Squadron, which will remotely pilot Australia’s fleet of MQ-4C Triton uncrewed aircraft.
“It’s really growth minded,” says Josh Rooney, SNC’s Australia managing director, of the South Australia capital.
“It’s defence centric and they’re really trying to push for the hub of Australian defence industrial base to be in South Australia,” he adds. “They align perfectly with our intentions of what we are looking to do down here.”
The SNC site will initially employ five workers, with plans to grow that number to 20 by the end of 2025. While the team in Adelaide will be focused on executing new contracts and sustaining capabilities already delivered to Australia, Rooney says the company wants to do more than just sell American-made products overseas.
“SNC Australia is not just focused on bringing in US technology and delivering it to the Commonwealth,” he notes. “It’s about building organic capabilities here as well.”
To that end, SNC is expanding its use of local suppliers on its Australian contracts, and even helping those companies expand their operations beyond the domestic market.
Wildman says SNC recently partnered with an Australian sensor manufacturer to contribute to a product SNC had sold to Canberra. The partnership was so successful that SNC is now helping Australia market that domestically produced capability to European members of NATO.
“We are an integrator, but we’re also an opportunity for these companies to get their product into the US or even into other areas like NATO,” Wildman says.
Another Australian firm working in the realm of electronic warfare battle management has caught the Americans’ attention, and Wildman says SNC is exploring how to incorporate that capability into their own products, thus opening markets in the USA and UK to the Australian supplier.
“Australia is an innovative country,” he says. “Enabling them to bring that to the marketplace is a win for both of us.”
