The analysis, which examined millions of payments from Thales Australia to its Australian suppliers, found that the prime spent approximately $657 million with 1,841 Australian firms, of which roughly 1,500 were SMEs.

The increase in spending was estimated to support 2,051 jobs in the Australian supply chain.  

The record high in 2020 took Thales Australia’s combined spend for 2018-20 to approximately $1.9 billion.

“Thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts flowing to Australian SMEs demonstrates that the government’s focus on driving higher Australian industry capability is the right one,” Thales Australia CEO Chris Jenkins said.

“Despite the massive economic disruption caused by COVID we have been able to increase our spend in the Australian supply chain thanks to the urgent measures taken by the government and the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group to accelerate payments and maintain Defence spending.

“Working in partnership with Defence we’ve been able to boost Australia’s sovereign industrial capabilities which improves our national self-reliance and delivers a jobs and economic dividend along the way.”

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 Accenture managing director Andrew Charlton said the analysis would help inform policy makers and Defence stakeholders.

“Understanding how this spending flows through Australian supply chain gives a more complete picture of the Value for Money generated by local acquisition,” Jenkins added.

“Prime defence contractors like Thales are the key to translating Defence spending into effective supply chain and investment programs because they maintain extensive Australian supply chains across multiple programs.

“The study found a strong correlation between high supply chain spending and Thales’s provision of sovereign industrial capabilities, with the largest spend on maritime service and support, protected vehicle manufacture and munitions and small arms.”

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