Defence Minister Richard Marles is expected to detail the government’s six technology priorities for the development of Australia’s defence capability at the Land Forces 2026 trade show being held in Perth this week.
Mr Marles, who is due to attend the event on Wednesday, is tipped to highlight the opportunities for Western Australian businesses under the government’s 10-year plan to strengthen Australia’s defence industry capability.
The six technology priorities identified by the government include long range and hypersonic weapons, high-energy lasers, autonomous systems, quantum technology, artificial intelligence and undersea warfare.
Land Forces, promoted at the nation’s largest land defence trade event, will be attended by 964 exhibiting companies and organisations and 258 government, industry and academic delegations from 60 nations.
It will include commanders and senior officers from the Australian Defence Force, the United States Army, the British Army and other national armed forces, together with major defence industry firms including BAE Systems, RAND Corporation, Thales, Raytheon Australia and NVIDIA.
Mr Marles said the expo was “a really important defence industry event”.
“This is about ensuring that Australia has capability, that we are building Australia’s sovereignty and that, in the process, we are keeping Australians safe,” he told ABC radio. “That’s what’s going on here. It is through building this capability that we seek to maintain peace.”
The three-day event, which commences on Tuesday, 6 October and is being held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, is being held amidst a global ramp up in defence spending, including in Australia, as nations grapple with major shifts in the geopolitical environment marked by China’s rapid military build-up and increased uncertainty about the role the United States will play in future.
The government plans to spend a record $425 billion on defence in the next decade, lifting it to around 3 per cent of GDP by 2035-36.
Among its priorities are to boost the nation’s defence self-reliance, including increasing the defence workforce and improving the nation’s capacity to “rapidly translate disruptive new technologies into ADF (Australian Defence Force) capability, in close partnership with Australian industry.
“We need to be much more capable as a nation in terms of our defence force,” Mr Marles said.
“That’s why we are investing heavily in our defence force. Defence spending is a function of strategic threat. We are in a very strategically complex world, which I think people can see.”
The minster said the potential opportunities for WA businesses were significant.
“There’s huge opportunity in relation to this. Here in Western Australia, defence industry represents really the biggest economic diversification of the Western Australian economy that we have seen in decades,” he said.
Mr Marles said projects tied to the massive AUKUS pact, including HMAS Stirling in Rockingham and the Henderson Defence Precinct, would alone support an extra 10,000 jobs over coming years.
“What it does is help build our nation’s capability. If we are able to build our own capability and put in place deterrents, that’s the best way we can act in order to keep all Australians, including Western Australians, safe. And people should see this Land Forces expo in that context. This is a really important defence industry event.”
A Defence Department spokesperson said Land Forces was an opportunity to connect Australian and international leaders in defence, industry, government, academia and technology.
