Brisbane-based NIOA has extended its collaboration with global defence company L3Harris to explore the manufacture of guided weapons components in Australia.
It has also announced a partnership with Perth-based Innovaero to develop and manufacture modular warheads and launch systems for drones.
The L3Harris collaboration was initially announced in 2023, aimed at establishing a “sovereign rocket motor and warhead manufacturing capability” in Australia.
It comes off the back of an unprecedented global demand for advanced missile components.
NIOA Group CEO Rob Nioa said conflicts in the Middle East and parts of Europe illustrated the extraordinary consumption rates of guided weapons and interceptor missiles.
He said NOIA was ready to partner with L3Harris to move quickly to establish the capacity to support Australia’s defence objectives and supply chain resilience.
President of L3Harris’ Missile Propulsion Sector, Scott Alexander, said L3Harris was pleased to renew and extend the teaming agreement with NIOA.
“We look forward to collectively delivering a substantial increase for solid rocket motors and warhead production between the US and Australian defence industrial bases,” he said.
In a statement, NIOA said that its L3Harris collaboration aligned with the Defence Industry Development Strategy (DIDS) and AUD $21b Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Plan to “stand up” a sovereign manufacturing capability by 2030.
“The US Department of War recently announced a USD $1b investment in L3Harris in a landmark direct-to-supplier partnership to expand the production of solid rocket motors (SRM) that power the world’s most advanced missiles,” the statement said.
“L3Harris manufactures solid rocket motors and warheads for Tomahawk Cruise Missiles and Standard Missile, munitions for which Australia placed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) orders totalling more than AUD $8b in 2024.”
L3Harris is a global aerospace and defence technology company that operates in over 45 countries. It specialises in advanced communications, integrated intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR) systems, electronic warfare, and missile defence.
NIOA is a privately-owned global munitions company that was established in Queensland in in 1973 and now has strategic locations around the world.
It manufactures and supplies weapons and munitions to Australian and allied nation defence forces, law enforcement agencies and commercial markets.
The NIOA-Innovaero partnership is a strategic collaboration to design, test and manufacture warheads, launch boosters, and tube launched systems.
Innovaero Managing Director Mike von Bertouch said building sovereign capability was central to the organisation’s strategy.
“Together with NIOA, we will transfer advanced know-how, create high-value local jobs, and strengthen Australia’s security supply chain,” he said.
Mr Nioa said Innovaero had been a “fantastic success story” in building sovereign capability.
He said the combined expertise of the two companies would give Australia a unique opportunity to onshore key technologies safely and responsibly, and improve long-range strike options for the ADF and allies
He said the partnership reflected the global lessons around the impactful role of cost effective, mass-produced armed drones, manufactured from a sovereign industrial base.
