Television Interview, Sky News Newsday

SUBJECTS: National Defence Strategy; Investment in drones and missiles; Strait of Hormuz

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: I want to go live now to the Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy. Significant announcements this week, or today on the drone capacity and on missile capacity. Can you bring our viewers up to speed on what the Government’s announced, Minister?

PAT CONROY, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY: Absolutely. So, we will be releasing the 2026 National Defence Strategy on Thursday. As part of the NDS, we'll be announcing a $5 billion increase in our 10-year plans to acquire drones and counter drones. At the moment we're spending $10 billion – we'll be spending up to $15 billion over the decade on these. We make some of the most advanced autonomous systems in the world. Whether it's Ghost Bat, the first combat aircraft designed and built in Australia in 50 years, or Ghost Shark, the world leading underwater extra-large autonomous submarine – those things are already being produced in this country. On top of acquiring more of those, we'll be allocating billions of dollars to acquire small drones that provide mass for the Australian Army. So, this is about a significant investment in drones. We've learned a lesson from the Ukraine conflict and what we're seeing in the Middle East.

GILBERT: Will we be making those as well?

CONROY: Yes, absolutely. We make Ghost Bat at the moment in Melbourne and we're building a factory outside Brisbane to build the Ghost Bat aircraft. We're building Ghost Shark in a factory in Sydney that went from an idea on paper in 2022 to a factory I opened late last year with the first ones being delivered to the Navy. I announced the largest…

GILBERT: And the mass-produced drones as well?

CONROY: We'll go through a competitive tender.

GILBERT: Sorry to interrupt, those mass-produced ones as well?

CONROY: Well, we'll go through a competitive tender process. But I announced the biggest contracts for Australian drone producers a couple of years ago to companies like SYPAQ in Melbourne and Quantum in Brisbane. We've got a really great drone industry in this country. There's no reason why they won't win those contracts to supply those drones. An important point to make is we've introduced into service the first armed-drone for the Australian Defence Force. When Angus Taylor was a cabinet minister, the Coalition Government cancelled the only armed drone project. So, we're reversing the damage they've done. On missiles, we had the first...

GILBERT: But on the tender… just before you get to the missile, I do want to get into that because it's a super interesting development as we move towards precision long range missiles… But on the drones, on that sovereign capacity – as you factor this in and the Government factors this in, surely further to price, there's the whole issue of having it onshore. So, in the event of a conflict, we can still continue to make these things. We don't need to rely on a supply chain?

CONROY: Absolutely. And that's one of the key considerations for value for money is – is it being built in Australia. And it's a really strong determinant of it. As I said, look at our track record. Ghost Bat, built in Australia. Ghost Shark built in Australia. I announced the biggest drone contracts for SYPAQ and Quantum. Counter drone systems being produced in Australia right now. So, there is huge opportunity for Aussie industry that we've already supported and we're adding an extra up to $5 billion to deploy more drones for the Australian Defence Force as well as adding jobs to the Australian economy.

GILBERT: And you've said you touched on it there – the guided multiple launch rocket system. The first batch has been delivered here and manufactured here. Can you tell us about the numbers we're talking about?

CONROY: Absolutely. We opened our first missile factory late last year in Port Wakefield and the first batch of those missiles have come off the production line and we had a successful test firing of them last week. These are the first Aussie-made missiles – certainly in the last 50 years, probably ever, depending on what you define as a missile. So, this is a great achievement. We'll have a second factory online next year and a third by the end of the decade. So, the Coalition again says we're not moving fast enough – well they produced two things in guided weapons and they were two media releases. We're producing missiles right now in Australia and we'll have three factories in the next few years.

GILBERT: And on the number of drones and the overall capacity on that front too, can you tell us exactly how many drones we will have? The one thing we've noticed in Ukraine and the Middle East is that there is a huge depletion of stocks, both in a missile sense but in a drone sense. The counter drone capacity – you just need a lot of everything?

CONROY: Well, we do and we've already got hundreds of drones in service with the Australian Defence Force. The key thing is to get the balance right. Spending lots of money producing drones now that will be rapidly out of date in terms of technology by the time you might need to use them. So, the key thing is to establish the industrial capability in the country to produce them and to have a rapid turnaround cycle so the technology can be upgraded. We don't want to order hundreds or thousands of drones that then sit on shelves and in two years’ time are out of date. So, the key thing is to do spiral development – and the drone contract I announced a couple of years ago in Melbourne at SYPAQ had that spiral development built in. So, you have enough orders to keep companies going to fund their development, but then you can press the go button when you need rapid deployment of more drones using the latest technology.

GILBERT: Okay and so when you're talking about that as well, it's to ensure that our Australian industry is evolving with the times as well, so that you're not stuck in, say, one pattern of an antiquated technology that they're updating as they go along. That's obviously key to that?

CONROY: Absolutely, and we use this from our large-advanced platforms like Ghost Bat, where we're funding production of Block 2 Aircraft right now, and then we're funding the development of Block 3 Aircrafts at the same time. And then smaller, cheaper drones – the development cycle is much faster and we're funding that through these projects as well. So, that $15 billion will be a massive boon to the Australian drone industry that's already very competitive around the world. We've been funding deployment of some Aussie drones into Ukraine right now – and this is one part of us learning the lessons of modern conflict to give the ADF the best equipment we possibly can so that they can detect and deter potential aggression.

GILBERT: Minister, will this be an increase in funding or reprioritisation cuts elsewhere to pay for this?

CONROY: Well, you'll see the full budget treatment on Thursday when the National Defence Strategy is launched. This is $5 billion additional funding for drone capabilities and counter drone capabilities. We've delivered the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending ever. We've increased it by $70 billion over the decade compared to what the Coalition left us with. So, again, it sticks in my core when Angus Taylor complains about ‘we're not spending enough on defence’. Well, we're spending $70 billion more than they did – including $10 billion in the forward estimates. We just don't produce media releases. We produce missiles and drones and are more than doubling the size of the surface fleet.

GILBERT: Defence industry Minister, before you go, the other issue is about the blockade and any… I know that Keir Starmer and the French will be hosting this thing on Friday – Strait of Hormuz Conference. I think the Prime Minister might be involved if his travel international commitments allow him to. But tell me, do we have a vessel or ships that could go and defend themselves against this sort of drone capacity?

CONROY: Well, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, soon to be Admiral Mark Hammond, Chief of the Navy at the moment, soon to be CDF, answered that question yesterday. He said that of our ten major surface combatants, so our frigates and destroyers, eight are on the water right now. They're equipped with advanced radars and very advanced missile defence systems – whether it's the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile or the Standard Missile when it comes to the air warfare destroyers as well as other defensive mechanisms. So, these ships are available for deployment. This Government has not made a decision, and we've not had any formal request to deploy these vessels. But we have vessels available should the Government of the day, the Australian Labor Government, choose to deploy them, but no requests have been made at the moment.

GILBERT: Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy, thanks. Talk to you soon.

ENDS