BAE taps Aussie innovation for GCS

BAE Systems is to tap the Australian industrial SME market for products and services to meet the needs of the Type 26 Global Combat Ship programme, the company announced on 26 September.

BAE Systems and 20 of its major suppliers for the programme will meet with over 150 Australian SMEs over two days in Canberra, where companies will have the opportunity to pitch to secure a place on the programme’s global supply chain. 

As the lead contractor for the Type 26 programme, BAE Systems is maturing the detailed design for the ships and has already awarded key contracts for long lead items for the first three ships as it prepares to start the manufacturing phase.

The UK government committed to buy eight of the advanced anti-submarine warships in its 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, which will in time replace the UK’s Type 23 frigates. BAE Systems Australia is proposing the Global Combat Ship for the SEA 5000 (Future Frigates) programme to replace the ANZAC class frigates.

BAE Systems Australia director strategy, Fran Murphy, said: ‘Australian SMEs have an extraordinary reputation for being innovative, agile and cost competitive which is why some of the world’s biggest companies are here to engage with and understand the capability that Australian companies can bring to this important programme.

‘Securing work on a project the size and scale of the UK’s Type 26 to be built for the Royal Navy would position any Australian business well for future opportunities. The Global Combat Ship has been designed for export and is currently being offered to Australia and other nations around the world.'