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In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast, host Steve Kuper is joined by Lee Davis, senior director at Honeywell Aerospace Australia, to unpack what’s being described as the most transformative industrial undertaking in the nation’s history – Australia’s AUKUS industrial base strategy.
At its core, AUKUS is about far more than submarines. It’s about building a deeply integrated, trilateral industrial ecosystem across Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom – one that combines advanced design, nuclear propulsion expertise, and sovereign Australian industrial capability.
Kuper and Davis explore what it actually takes to stand up a domestic nuclear-powered submarine enterprise – from shipbuilding and sustainment to workforce development and supply chain integration. A key focus is how Australian industry, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, can position themselves to plug into global supply chains and capitalise on unprecedented access to allied programs.
Davis provides insight into the role of industry in driving capability, highlighting how clear demand signals and government investment are critical to unlocking scale, innovation, and long-term resilience.
The conversation also examines the policy settings underpinning AUKUS, including new export control reforms enabling licence-free defence trade between partners, and what this means for technology transfer, intellectual property, and sovereign control.
But with opportunity comes risk. The pair discuss the challenges ahead – from workforce shortages and infrastructure demands to supply-chain bottlenecks and the complexity of managing sensitive nuclear technologies.
This is more than a defence capability story, it’s a whole-of-nation industrial transformation.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect Spotlight team
Listen to previous episodes of the Defence Connect podcast:
Episode 11: CONTESTED GROUND: Weak, vulnerable, backwater – Australia’s choice between strategic camps and managed decline
Episode 10: PODCAST: Undersea dominance – Australia charts the maritime future through autonomous systems and AUKUS innovation
Episode 9: PODCAST: Australian Army Cadets pathways, submarine industry growth and Australia’s fuel security
Episode 8: CONTESTED GROUND: The blind faith factor – why Australians trust an ADF they don’t understand
Episode 7: PODCAST: Defence preparedness, artificial intelligence productivity, and Australian industrial resilience
Episode 6: CONTESTED GROUND: Shots fired! Chinese missile test shatters Australia’s ‘fog of peace’, with Mike Pezzullo
Episode 5: SPOTLIGHT: Counter-drone innovation, directed energy and delivering operational outcomes, with EOS Defence Systems’ Lee Kormany
Episode 4: PODCAST: Strengthening security ties, Fiji defence pact and Australia’s counter-drone push
Episode 3: CONTESTED GROUND: Lessons from the UK in political polarisation, generational dislocation and intergenerational warfare, with Ben Dullroy, Bravo Delta Advisory
Episode 2: PODCAST: Defence Industry Development Strategy, Defence reform and Australians fighting in Ukraine
