Australia’s Guided Weapons and Munitions effort makes progress, but risks remain

SINGAPORE – Australia’s efforts to develop its sovereign guided weapons manufacturing continues to make progress but risks remain, with two think tanks this year calling for the country to further diversify its sources and take concrete steps to ensure its workforce is in place to support its plans.

The Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) effort, Canberra’s effort to create domestic production for guided missiles, was launched in 2024. According to its 2026 National Defence Strategy (NDS), Australia plans to set aside between 26 and 36 billion Australian dollars ($18.16 to $25.14 billion) in funding for the GWEO, although the NDS and accompanying integrated investment plan did not contain a lot of details into where the funding will be allocated. 

So far, the effort has four official partners: the Australian arms of Norwegian firm Kongsberg, French company Thales, and US giants Lockheed Martin, Raytheon. There are also two local companies tapped as “Enterprise and Support Partners” for the program.

The plan has already hit a few milestones, with Australia having test fired locally produced Lockheed’s Guided Multiple Launched Rocket Systems (GMLRS) rockets, found local industry partners to produce GMLRS components, and entered an agreement to develop and produce Precision Strike Missiles.  

It will also become the first export customer for the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), developed and tested an indigenous solid-rocket motor, and will locally manufacture Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile and Joint Strike Missile. 

The latter two milestones are noteworthy, as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) noted in April that a large proportion of the munitions being produced under the GWEO are US in origin and that US manufacturers are already struggling to meet demand. 

The think-tank echoed Australia’s NDS in supporting Australia’s efforts to diversify its sources of munitions, noting that “South Korea, Britain and Germany offer credible technology transfer pathways for components and complete weapons that could reduce dependence.”

Another Australian think tank also cautioned that workforce shortages in Australia also presents an additional risk to the GWEO effort, and called on the Australian government to take the lead in heading off the issue. 

The United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney called Australia’s current industrial workforce planning “largely neglected” in a June report, and called on the Australian government to “address current trends of deferred responsibility, ambiguous demand signals and ad hoc, incremental coordination across industry, state governments and training providers to ensure the success of the GWEO enterprise.”

Noting that Australia’s technical workforce tended to be geographically immobile due to “preference and circumstance”, planning for the siting of GWEO facilities needed to be decided quicker and better coordinated among Australia’s state and federal governments. 

“To succeed, there must be moves beyond ad hoc coordination and clear, long-term demand signals necessary to attract and train the specialised talent required for this mission,” said USSC Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Dr Lavina Lee in the report.

Nevertheless, ASPI was upbeat on the program, noting that it “has been hitting milestones on the way to closing capability gaps and building domestic industrial foundations.”

Similarly, the former head of Australia’s GWEO Group, Air Marshal Leon Phillips, said he was proud of what the organization, which has been tasked with overseeing the program, has achieved.

“We’ve focused on deepening our war stocks, enhancing our lethality and reach – particularly long-range strike – and importantly, building domestic manufacturing capability,” he said prior to leaving the post in September.

Continued Expansion

The latest milestone for GWEO actually came today, during the Land Forces exhibition in Perth, with the announcement that Kongsberg Australia has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Zone 5 Technologies for manufacturing guided missiles. 

Both companies will “explore collaboration opportunities to provide affordable, mass producible long-range strike and air-defence and anti-drone missiles for Australia and New Zealand,” per a release.

Kongsberg, who concluded its acquisition of Zone 5 in June, says that the MoU “establishes a framework for the organisations to collaborate on local manufacturing and supply chain opportunities and builds on Kongsberg’s growing weapons manufacturing capability in Australia.” 

John Fry, Kongsberg Australia’s managing director, said that current events in the US and Europe show that “the ability to produce capable and affordable effectors quickly and at scale” was required. 

“Building resilient supply chains and industrial capacity is critical to ensuring Australia and its allies can sustain capability when it matters. Key design principles for Zone 5 Technologies’ solutions are simplified supply chains and manufacturability at scale.”

Zone 5 produces the AGM-188 Rusty Dagger long-range strike missile that has reportedly been used by Ukraine as well as the White Spike counter-drone air defense missile.