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Australia’s national defence strategy is increasingly wedged between the immediate capability expectations of its major allies and the country’s traditional reliance on big-ticket items from the USA, according to recent comments from an industry leader.
Saber Astronautics chief executive officer Dr Jason Held made the comments during an officially opening of the company’s new Sydney-based state-of-the-art research and development facility earlier this month.
“The US military, at a very deep level, wants Australia to pay for their own tech. They want Australia to have a robust and successful independent industry (even though) it sounds counter-intuitive,” according to Dr held.
“And there’s a difference between what the US government wants and what the US primes and large companies want.
“The US government wants Australia to produce innovation and deploy that innovation because they are looking for a competitive force (partner). The pace of innovation is one of their metrics for success against Russia and China. Communist block countries that can simply throw government money at companies without probity.
“The US has said specifically, we need Australia on board, we need the UK on board.
“What happens is the large US companies, primes come to Australia, we’re a $4 billion market, and all of our acquisition systems currently are biased towards importing American defence and space tech goods.
“Those three and four stars (generals) in the US are frustrated, they’re saying ‘how come we’re not seeing that Australian tech in our ecosystem?’. We need more (Australian tech) and so Sabre has worked very hard over the years to build up those channels directly between the countries.
“Sabre has to look five to ten years ahead, we have to. It's the only way we could compete against larger entities as a bootstrap; especially out of Australia. The only way you could really compete in Australia, is if you have something that's so useful, it breaks the Buy America Act of 1933… that says you cannot buy this tech unless It is a clear differentiator from something we cannot buy ourselves.”
The new Chippendale research and development facility was officially opened by NSW Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Anoulack Chanthivong on March 4.
The laboratory is expected to promote Australia’s cutting-edge capabilities in space traffic management, logistics and mission-critical software for allied partners, including the United States Space Force.
Looking ahead, Sabre’s focus is on space logistics, civil space traffic management, and expanding space domain awareness into geostationary and cislunar regions, supporting both civil and military operations as satellite activity increases between Earth and the moon.
Held said that rather than relying on government grants, Sabre has focused on turning research and development into commercial products and securing customers, including contracts with NASA and the US Space Force.
With advice for future space start-ups in NSW, Held said Australia has traditionally struggled with commercialising space technology despite strong research and development, often requiring US validation before domestic adoption.
“That was my nightmare scenario when I founded this company … ‘It’s going to succeed in the US. Australia will only buy it after it sells in the US.’ Looks like there’s some element of truth there,” he said.
“The Australian defence typically won’t trust their own market, unless the US provides that validation for the product, which has happened to us quite soundly.
“And Australia historically finds it difficult to set up acquisition systems which are unbiased towards the local market, where the local market can independently sell here.
“It’s the reason why Australia is unique in OECD countries where we’re top 10 in the world for space research and development, but we’re dead last for commercialisation. Sabre kind of bucks that trend because of our success overseas and our ability to export. I think there are a couple of other companies that are finding that success as well.”
