Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne and ambassador of Australia to the US Joe Hockey visited the Team Defence Australia pavilion and said many of the companies’ exhibiting had existing contracts with the US Department of Defense and with the prime companies as a supplier on major platforms or, in the case of Perth-founded company Calytrix, on a range of simulation projects.

Minister Pyne praised the event's importance for highlighting Australia's defence export opportunities.

"Increasing the export potential of Australian companies and accessing new market opportunities are a key policy driver for the government," Minister Pyne said.

"Exporting leads to higher productivity, innovation and competitiveness, and directly contributes to the growth of jobs in Australia.

"We have been too heavily reliant on defence imports and while Australian industry has experienced export success, we want to reverse our reliance on imports and build a sustainable sovereign industry base."

The minister will release the Department of Defence's new export strategy later this year, which he said will be fundamental in achieving the government's aims for a strong local defence industry.

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"It is important we have a co-ordinated approach to the planning, guiding and measuring of defence export outcomes and that these outcomes are linked to the future prosperity of Australia and to achieving defence capability outcomes," he said.