Australia's Sovereign Capability in Military Weapons

Andrew Dowse, Marigold Black, John P. Godges, Caleb Lucas, Christopher A. Mouton

Expert InsightsPublished Jul 5, 2023

The Australian Government's 2020 Defence Strategic Update noted the deterioration of Australia's security environment, particularly the greater potential for state-on-state conflict, and addressed the need for the defence enterprise to be resilient to shocks and outside interference. In 2021, the then–Prime Minister announced the accelerated creation of what became Australia's Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise.

Australia has two fundamental options for supplying its military weapons: purchase from overseas (buy) or manufacture in Australia (build). Given the immaturity of Australia's defence industry in producing advanced weapons, buy options might be required to mitigate the country's short-term risks. There are other potential measures to increase resilience and self-reliance, such as increasing the availability of weapons through maintenance and logistics arrangements. In this Perspective, the authors discuss the objectives of the GWEO Enterprise and examine options to achieve these objectives.

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Dowse, Andrew, Marigold Black, John P. Godges, Caleb Lucas, and Christopher A. Mouton, Australia's Sovereign Capability in Military Weapons. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2023. https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA2131-1.html.
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The research described in this report was sponsored by the Australia Department of Defence and conducted jointly by RAND Australia and the Acquisition and Technology Policy Program of the RAND National Security Research Division.

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