REFINED AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE OBJECTIVES

SENATOR THE HON LINDA REYNOLDS CSC, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE EXPLAINS WHY OUR CHANGING WORLD AND REFINED AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE OBJECTIVES OFFER OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROJECT MANAGERS.

The world we all grew up in is no more. Our region is now facing the most consequential strategic realignment since the end of World War II. Across the Indo-Pacific, countries are modernising their militaries and increasing their preparedness for conflict.

New weapons and technologies like hypersonic glide and long-range missiles, autonomous systems, space and cyber capabilities, and AI – are transforming the characteristics of warfare. Some nations are increasingly employing coercive tactics – such as cyber-attacks, foreign interference, and economic pressure – to exploit the grey area between peace and war. And the COVID-19 pandemic is still an active and unpredictable threat.

All of these factors and pressures are contributing to uncertainty and tension, raising the risk of military confrontation and strategic competition while compromising free and open trade. As the Prime Minister observed, we need to be prepared for a post COVID world “that is poorer, that is more dangerous, and that is more disorderly”.

The recently announced 2020 Defence Strategic Update is a timely and detailed response to the demands of our constantly evolving Defence environment. The companion 2020 Force Structure Plan articulates what this will look like over the coming decade, and what it will cost. Importantly, it provides industry with insight into Defence’s capability needs and underscores the need for their closer partnership across the full spectrum of capability requirements.

Together, these two documents signal and substantiate Australia’s resolve to pursue three new Defence objectives:

• first, to shape our strategic environment;

• secondly, to deter action against Australia’s interests; and

• thirdly, to respond with credible military force, when required.

Shaping our strategic environment means Australia working even closer with our friends, partners and allies to ensure a stable, prosperous and rules-based Indo-Pacific where the sovereignty and independence of all states, large and small, is respected. That is, an Indo-Pacific where disputes are resolved peacefully without coercion; where there is cooperation and healthy competition, not confrontation and conflict.

Australia’s Defence activities will focus on our immediate region: the area ranging from the northeastern Indian Ocean, through maritime and mainland South East Asia, to Papua New Guinea and the South West Pacific. We will seek to enrich partnerships through cooperative Defence activities and capacity building initiatives, like joint-training exercises, delivering security-related infrastructure and maritime deployments.

Our capacity to deter and to respond will also be sharpened. Over the next decade the Government is investing $270 billion in Defence capabilities across five domains – maritime, land, air, information and cyber, and space.

In particular, we will develop long-range strike weapons, offensive and defensive cyber, and area denial systems to hold a potential adversary’s forces and infrastructure at risk from greater distances, while influencing the decision-making of those who seek to threaten our national interests.

The Government is bolstering capabilities by investing in:

• mine warfare;

• integrated air and missile Defence;

• remotely piloted, semi-autonomous and autonomous systems and aircraft;

• integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs;

• a sovereign controlled network of satellites; and

• the exploration of directed energy weapons.

Moreover, we will increase the ADF’s ability to address multiple and concurrent challenges, such as its capacity to support civil authorities in response to national and regional crises and natural disasters. This means developing more assured and resilient supply chains and expanding sovereign industrial capabilities – a necessity directly reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australia’s Defence industrial sector comprises some 4,000 businesses which employ some 30,000 people.

These businesses, in turn, are supported by an additional 11,000 Australian companies. Moreover, when downstream suppliers are considered, early analysis shows that Government investment in Defence capabilities benefits some 70,000 workers. And we expect this number to keep growing. Through the Australian Industry Capability Program, ten Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities have been identified which present a range of opportunities to maximise Australian Industry participation and support growth of Australia’s sovereign Defence industrial base.

At this critical time, this can bring greater certainty for industry, jobs for Australians, and more resilient capabilities for the ADF. Our Defence capabilities will be further enhanced by targeted research which brings together the distinct strengths of academia, industry and publically-funded research agencies to address some of our biggest strategic challenges.

Over the next decade, the Government has allocated $3 billion of capability investment funding for Defence innovation, science and technology. We will increase investment in the Next Generation Technologies Fund and the Defence Innovation Hub. And by the middle of this decade, we will establish a Capability Acceleration Fund for the intensive development of disruptive technologies. Highly skilled project, product and program managers are the key professionals that will have responsibility for managing complex projects of national significance and who will successfully lead the delivery of capability outcomes for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) – on budget, schedule and to the desired quality.

More broadly, a thriving and engaged project management sector will inject vitality into our economy and help steer the nation on the road to recovery from the financial impacts of COVID-19.

Defence’s current project managers are certified through AIPM. Their experience, skills and ongoing training contributes significantly to Defence’s capability and infrastructure development, its science and research endeavours, and the Government’s security and development initiatives at home and in our immediate region. These are some of the most complex and important projects of our time which will have lasting strategic implications.

I encourage all project management professionals to read the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and 2020 Force Structure Plan with a view to potential opportunities for highly skilled people like you. I hope that, equipped with these insights, you too will look for ways to become engaged with Defence and utilise your skills for Australia’s strategic benefit.

Author: Minister Reynolds was sworn in as the Minister for Defence on 29 May 2019. Minister Reynolds served for 29 years in the Australian Army as a Reserve Officer in a wide range of part and full time appointments. She was the first woman in the Australian Army Reserves to be promoted to the rank of Brigadier and was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross. Minister Reynolds was elected to the Australian Senate in 2014 and again in 2019.