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Australia’s defence capabilities will be showcased to defence officials and industry representatives in the US this week, with Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne leading the charge.
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The minister will visit the US and Canada until 7 April and will highlight the continuing strength of Australia's innovative defence industry.
The trip comes a month after US President Donald Trump announced plans to increase military spending by $70 billion.
The focus of the trip is the G'Day USA US-Australian Dialogue on Defence Industries.
Key representatives from industry and Fortune 500 companies will be in attendance where Minister Pyne will give a keynote address that will, in part, highlight the significant contributions that Australian defence industry can make to the Australia-US alliance.
Minister Pyne said the dialogue is an important part of Australia increasing its defence exports and growing a high-end, advanced manufacturing industry.
"The Australian government is embarking on its largest ever renewal and investment into defence capability, investing approximately $195 billion to grow our local defence capability across the decade and boost our economy," he said.
"This will be an excellent foundation for us to grow our exports in defence industry, with close allies such as the United States a prime focus of local Australian companies.
"G'Day USA has been a successful program in promoting our offerings in tourism and agriculture, and we expect this to be repeated for our defence industry."
Before the event, the minister will visit Ottawa to meet Canadian Minister of National Defence Harjit Singh Sajjan and other government representatives to discuss growing defence industry engagement between Australia and Canada, as well as the synergy between Australia's Future Frigate program and the Canadian surface combatant program, particularly highlighting the world-class phased array radar made by CEA (based in Canberra) and the Saab Australia 9LV combat system.
