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Exploratory AUKUS Trade Mission to Australia
Australia’s defense sector is undergoing significant transformation, driven by the AUKUS tri-lateral security partnership and the Australian National Defense Strategy. This evolution presents substantial opportunities for Virginia companies to contribute innovative capabilities and forge long-term partnerships within the AUKUS framework.
Join VEDP International Trade for an exploratory AUKUS focused trade mission. Virginia companies will visit the regions of Australia most connected to AUKUS activities and will benefit from one-on-one meetings with potential partners/distributors and government officials, panel discussions with local industry experts, and networking opportunities.
Australia is a major defense market for the United States and is pursuing a multi-streamed defense acquisition policy including substantially increased total expenditure; acquisition of nuclear powered submarines, incorporating interoperability with the U.S. military; skills transfer and in-country R&D, assembly and manufacture as part of a development plan to grow the Australian defense industry; re-establishing a naval shipbuilding industry; and pursuit of international sales from Australian produced defense systems.
■ Australia is the 2nd largest US market for defense/arms sales over the past 15 years.
■ FMS investment from Australia has increased 72% since AUKUS was announced in 2021.
■ Australia forecasts defense investment moving from approximately 2% of GDP to 2.4% of GDP in the next decade.
The AUKUS Partnership aims to boost defense capabilities, accelerate technological integration and expand the industrial capacity of all three nations. It comprises two pillars: Pillar 1 is a trilateral effort to support Australia in acquiring conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs); and Pillar 2 focuses on expediting cooperation in critical technologies, including cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, additional undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic, and a range of other initiatives.
Virginia companies interested in exploring opportunities with Australia’s defense sector will benefit from:
■ One-on-one meetings with potential partners or distributors
■ Panel discussions with local industry experts
■ Networking opportunities
Registration Deadline
Contact
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on past trade missions, we expect 6-10 Virginia companies to participate. The registration process is ongoing until the trade mission is full or the registration deadline has passed.
You must pay the trade mission participation fee of $2,500 to the VEDP at the time of registration. The participation fee includes the following:
- Identifying, contacting and pre-qualifying local distributors, reps and/or partners and organization of your meetings with interested prospects
- A “Doing Business In” briefing on the market(s)
- Your VEDP Trade Mission Leader and in-country consultant on hand during the week to ensure everything runs to plan
- Interpreter if needed
All travel expenses including airfare, hotels, meals, individual ground transportation to be paid directly by each participant. Additional estimated costs you will incur include (but are not limited to):
- Roundtrip airfare
- Hotels (7 nights)
- Meals
- Airport transfers, taxis, and other miscellaneous items
In most cases, you will be traveling independently to the locations of the local companies with which you are meeting. Because most appointments will be held at the companies’ locations, travel and other logistics may prevent each delegate from having a minimum of 3-4 meetings each day of the trade mission.
For travel between meetings, our consultants will recommend the most effective method of transportation. This will likely be a local car/driver.
If required, interpreters will be provided for meetings and are included in your registration fee.
Airline tickets: You book (and pay for) your own airline ticket via local travel agent or online air travel website. If you do not have a travel agent, the Trade Mission Leader can recommend one for you.
Hotels: VEDP will choose the hotel(s) and make reservations at a pre-negotiated government rate for each delegate. However, delegates will be responsible for their own hotel charges throughout the mission. All delegates will stay at the same hotel in order to facilitate logistics as well as to encourage the interaction and networking that is always a collateral benefit of traveling with a group. You will pay all hotel room charges directly to the hotel.
Contact your local International Trade Manager or the Trade Mission Leader immediately! We only want you to make the trip if we think there is good market potential for your company. We can perform exploratory market research within a short period of time to verify market potential for you.