Increasing Security Exports
The ever-increasing anxiety about global security has led to an increase in security products worldwide. Australia’s know-how in this area is well respected, but what more can we do to increase defence and security exports?
Ask an average Australian what he or she thinks about defence exports, and you could end up in a debate about deploying troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Or you might be lectured about Canberra’s plans to replace the RAAF’s ageing fighter aircraft. It is less likely citizens consider—or are even aware of—Australia’s own sophisticated and highly successful military and homeland security export industry. Even Paul Keating, as Federal Treasurer, once memorably declared: “Who cares about defence? What are we going to do? Invade New Zealand?”
The truth is that Australian exporters care a lot about defence and security. Their customers range from the mighty United States military establishment to the Singapore Police Department, and this very fact makes these exports, especially in the defence area, a source of special interest and concern to the Australian Government.
The difficulty anyone faces when contemplating the defence export industry is in trying to define exactly what it is. Secrecy—sometimes official, sometimes commercial—often means that some exports and their exporters remain faintly shadowy figures. Their activities are often classified in government documentation as ‘confidential’. Official estimates suggest Australia has 400 specialist defence companies operating at the present time, with 200 firms actively engaged in exporting.
New exporters: Young guns
Defence exports can be tricky but lucrative. Defence and defence-related products and services exports are now estimated to be worth some $600 million a year, covering everything from military hardware and infrastructure to software support and training, automotive components, even food.
Australian-designed non-military security is another big-ticket item in global markets even if it is more difficult to estimate how much the trade is worth.
New exporters in this industry need to know that the Federal Government maintains a Defence Export Control Office (DECO) to ensure “that Australian companies and individuals do not provide assistance to Weapons of Mass Destruction programs that threaten international peace and stability”. Last August, for instance, Canberra introduced new restrictions on the possession, manufacture, trafficking and export of plastic explosives, which cannot be sold overseas without a permit from DECO.
The United States is Australia’s key security market, Daniel Sullivan, Australia’s trade commissioner in Washington. Australia has an increasingly impressive track record in providing items like software and fibre optics to a vast law enforcement market that is extremely fragmented: it is estimated there are 1 .
Existing exporters: Target practice
The Middle East is emerging as a significant market for aviation and naval equipment so existing exporters already in the US market should look east, says Anastasios Angeloglou, CEO of Sydney-based security, surveillance and smart card technology specialist BQT Solutions. He observes that there is no recession in the Middle East where a vast building industry has made the region thirsty for security products. “Australians are well regarded in the region compared to, say, the Europeans, so I would urge them to consider the market because there are so few Australians based here when they could be enjoying considerable success,” he says.
Angeloglou counsels small and medium sized Australian companies wanting to operate in the Middle East to find a “well positioned, well respected partner” to ensure market penetration. “Partnerships deliver lower costs and fewer risks as well as complementing your market and technical know-how,” he says. “In the Arab world, personal relations with decision makers are vital because they believe it’s the human touch that’s most important.
Advanced exporters: Straight shooters
Often the smaller markets can be quite lucrative because they may not have the well-developed infrastructure of larger ones. Singapore has a high acceptance of technological security solutions and a number of Australian companies have found success there. Singapore even maintains one of its air force squadrons in Australia as part of Australia’s training program for allies, which has become a valuable source of revenue.
On a grander scale CGear Australia, based in Port Melbourne, is a classic example of Aussie innovation solving problems for major military establishments. CGear makes rapidly deployable helicopter landing mats for helicopters operating in harsh sand and dust environments and, not surprisingly, is active in the Middle East where its HeliMats can also be used as a field screen, as a wind break and as ground cover.
According to CGear CEO Glen Sinclair-Gibson, the company’s innovative product has also been discovered by the US Marine Corps that uses HeliMats throughout its operations to overcome dust-driven ‘brown outs’—a problem that has plagued helicopter services for more than 70 years.
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