In the last days, the largest International Defence Exposition ever held in SE Asia has been conducted in Brisbane, Australia, with 3 solid days of record exhibitor numbers, major industry announcements and countless engagement opportunities. The biennial International LAND FORCES Expo has had 810 participating exhibitor international and local companies, hosted 40 conferences which informed on subjects from uncrewed systems technologies to workforce development requirements, often with “standing room only” in the conference rooms. The new Australian Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, said the event provided a catalyst for the teamwork needed to provide Army with future capability. While Army is implementing service entry for the Rheinmetall BOXER Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles (CRV) acquired under Project Land 400, it is also introducing Protected Tactical Vehicles PMV-L HAWKEYE and acquiring up to 450 new Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 30 Hanwha K-9 HUNTMAN self-propelled howitzers, 29 Boeing AH-64E APACHE helicopters and upgrades to its small arms, soldier systems and communications. Each of these major programs offers opportunities for Australian industry to not only create and maintain a sovereign capability for manufacture, maintenance, and support for these systems, but also to demonstrate capability to join international supply chains of their manufacturers.During the Expo, the Australian Military Defence Association (AMDA) Foundation presented the 2021 Innovation Awards. These are designed to encourage and reward excellence by Australian companies and emerging engineers and scientists. The 2021 award winners were:

National Innovation Award: Micro-X (South Australia) – for developing the world’s first mobile, lightweight X-Ray machine.

SME Innovation Award: SPEE3D (Victoria and the NT) – for developing a battlefield 3D printing system to shorten the Army’s supply chain.

Young Innovator Award: Dr Brodie McDonald of Defence Science and Technology Group (Victoria) – for leading the development of computer models to predict how the armour on military vehicles will behave under the onslaught of an IED or land mine.

Despite the high level of the Expo, it has lacked in terms of important announcements, some expectation for knowing the winner of the IFV contract and the adoption of the new 6.8mm rifle have been disappointed. It has become clear that for taking these decisions the Australian Military leadership will wait the next Strategic Review planned in 2023.

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