Australian government creates new agency to streamline defence delivery
The Australian government is to combine defence delivery arms into a new agency, as part of reforms designed to streamline acquisitions and build capability.
The announcement of government’s intention to establish the Defence Delivery Agency and appoint its first national armaments director comes as Australia ramps up its defence spending, having committed an additional A$70bn (US$46bn) over the next decade.
The Defence Delivery Agency is set to come into effect in July 2027, but will begin life as the Defence Delivery Group on 1 July next year when three defence delivery arms – the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, the Guided Weapons and Explosives Ordnance Group, and the Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group – will merge into one.
The agency will report directly to ministers and have control over its own budget “enabling coordinated and holistic delivery of defence capability and growing our sovereign defence industrial base,” the government said.
Deputy prime minister Richard Marles said the new agency would “elevate the professionalism and strategic focus of defence capability acquisition and sustainment|” and that it would “drive stronger contestability, more accurate cost estimation, and clearer accountability for the delivery of major projects”.
He called the move “one of the most significant reforms to defence” in Australia’s history, adding that it would “greatly change the way defence operates”.
Global Government Forum’s Innovation conference and exhibition – taking place on 24 and 25 March 2026 – will for the first time include a dedicated national defence and security programme. This will bring together public servants from around the UK and beyond to discuss how to improve national defence and security through transformation. Find out more and register to attend Innovation 2026 here.
Minister for defence industry, Pat Conroy, added that increasing complexity required a “systematic rethink” of the capability development and delivery system, and that the new agency would help to ensure Australia’s industrial base is “resilient, innovative and aligned with our strategic priorities”, while creating opportunities for Australian businesses and workers to contribute to national security.
“This is about setting defence up for success so we can modernise the Australian Defence Force in line with the National Defence Strategy, while ensuring we spend taxpayers’ money wisely,” he said.
A national armaments director – a newly-created role – will be appointed to lead the organisation and will provide advice to the government on acquisition strategies and the delivery of acquisition and sustainment projects.
Australia’s defence spending has risen since May 2022 and stands at the highest level it has been since the end of the Second World War. “With this record funding comes the need to ensure that defence continues to demonstrate value for money,” the government said.
Read more: Canada to hit defence spending target ‘half a decade ahead of schedule’, PM says
Australian-UK defence treaty
Since the Trump administration began applying pressure to NATO members to increase their defence expenditure to 5% of GDP per member, Australia has been strengthening its international defence alliances.
In July this year, Australia and the UK signed The Geelong Treaty, named after the Australian city in which it was signed, to develop and sustain nuclear-powered submarine programmes in both countries until 2075.
The treaty supports the construction, operation and long-term sustainment of next-generation nuclear powered submarines. It was announced by Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, alongside the UK’s defence secretary John Healey and UK foreign secretary, David Lammy.
Worth up to £20bn (US$26.4bn) in British exports over the next 25 years, the deal aims to create over 7,000 new jobs in UK shipyards and across the supply chain.
Healey had said that the treaty would support “high-skilled, well-paid jobs for tens of thousands of people in both the UK and Australia”. He added that it reinforced both partners’ “deep defence relationship”, including “vital” intelligence sharing and work to develop innovative technology.
AUKUS is a trilateral security alliance between Australia, the UK and the US. It was first agreed in 2021 to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines to counter China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.
Read more: UK and Australia sign 50-year AUKUS defence partnership treaty – Global Government Forum
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
