iscover
The inaugural Australian Defence Industry Accelerator Summit will equip small and medium-sized enterprises with the practical tools, financial pathways and industry connections needed to compete and grow in Australia’s expanding defence sector.
Set for Thursday, 16 July 2026, the summit will bring together senior government officials, financial institutions, prime contractors and industry leaders for a day of targeted sessions aimed at accelerating the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) across Australia’s defence supply chains.
Australia’s defence industrial base is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades, driven by record investment, the demands of AUKUS, and an accelerating sovereign capability agenda. Yet for many SMEs, converting that opportunity into commercial reality remains a daunting challenge, one that next month’s Australian Defence Industry Accelerator Summit is directly designed to address.
Steve Kuper, Defence & Aerospace Lead at Momentum Markets, said the summit had been designed with deliberate intent to close the gap between ambition and execution for Australian defence SMEs.
“The funding environment and supply chain access questions are the two issues we hear about most consistently from businesses trying to break into defence,” Kuper said.
Among the headline sessions is “Finance and growth for Defence SMEs”, which will tackle what many in the sector regard as the single greatest barrier to SME entry: access to capital. Featuring the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Chief Economist, Luke Yeaman, the panel will demystify defence funding pathways, explore cash flow strategies suited to complex procurement cycles, and lay out practical frameworks for building long-term financial resilience.
The full agenda and tickets are available here.
Equally anticipated is “Breaking into Defence supply chains”, a practical deep-dive designed to cut through the complexity and opacity that often frustrates businesses seeking to engage with Defence programs for the first time.
Featuring Krystal Doyle, state director Victoria/Tasmania at Export Finance Australia, and Anamika Mishra, director of defence, advanced manufacturing and space at Austrade, the session will unpack what defence customers actually look for in SME partners – and where businesses most commonly fall short.
“This summit exists to give them real answers from the people who hold the keys — not theory, but practical guidance they can act on immediately,” Kuper said.
The summit will also feature a keynote from the Department of Defence on enabling defence export growth, a panel on navigating geopolitical risk featuring former Department of Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo and strategist Dr Ross Babbage AM, and an SME–prime engagement fair during the networking lunch.
Kuper added that the timing of the summit couldn’t be more critical, with Australia’s 2026 National Defence Strategy and 2026 Integrated Investment Program reshaping the entire landscape of defence procurement and industrial engagement.
“We’re at an inflection point. The government has signalled clearly that it wants a deeper, broader sovereign industrial base – but that only happens if SMEs can actually get in the door and sustain themselves once they’re there. That’s what 16 July is about,” Kuper said.
More information about the program, including speakers, is available here. Tickets are available here.
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Defence Connect a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Defence Connect as a preferred news source.