Boeing Announces New Initiative to Engage Australian Manufacturers

Boeing Company announced on December 3 a closer collaborative effort with the government of Australia to more effectively engage Australian aerospace manufacturers into the American aircraft manufacturer's supply chain.

In a press release from Boeing, the company revealed the opening of a new Seattle office within Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems Industrial Participation organization the Office of Australian Industry Capability (OAIC), geared to work more closely with the Australian Defence Ministry in giving more Australian manufacturers an opportunity to supply parts for Australia's airforce.

"We expect the OAIC to develop opportunities for Australian industry as well as bring value to our global customers. We are pleased to continue our commitment to Australia and its industry by being the first U.S. prime contractor to establish such an office," said Joel Gray, Australia/New Zealand Industrial Participation manager for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.

Boeing's effort comes as a direct result of the Australian Defence Ministry's new Defence and Industry Policy requirements, geared toward ensuring that Australian industry is capable of supplying its own defense needs in time of war, instead of having to rely on the industry of other nations.

The effort of the Australian government to ensure a supply chain within an internal defense industry, and the government's concern that they were becoming less and less capable of providing such, was first expressed in a white paper put out for the Defence Ministry in 2000. At the same time, the Australian government committed itself to a 10-year, $47 billion update and upgrade its fleet of fighter planes, upgrading to F18's produced by Boeing subsidiary McDonnel Douglas.

Australia's Defence Material Organisation (DMO) is organizing a series of roundtable discussions involving Boeing, the Defence Ministry, and representatives from a variety of industries in Melbourne and Brisbane during 2008. Australia began taking delivery of the F-18's in 2006.

In 2001, Australian Defence Minister Peter Reith set out the goals for the government-industrial partnership, saying that "...those of you who are in the defence industry [will] have a solid and more predictable base for your long term corporate planning. The government recognizes... that it has an important role in setting out clear long term directions..."

Boeing has a vast array of aircraft that it supplies to Australia, from C-17 transport planes, to helicopters, to fighter jets, as well as a series of interlocking supply and maintenance contracts.

"In establishing the OAIC, Boeing is the first major international company to formally embrace Australia's new Defence and Industry Policy requirements, which seek to ensure that Australian industry gets the opportunity to compete for work based on a best value for money basis," said Dominic Zaal, director general, Industry Capability Branch of the DMO.