iscover
The Albanese government has reinforced its commitment to local manufacturing and job creation by securing domestic maintenance and support for the Australian Defence Force’s diving and hyperbaric equipment through a $100 million investment.
The five-year contract extension with James Fisher Defence (JFD) Australia, announced today, designates JFD as the category integrator for support services to the ADF’s diving and hyperbaric equipment. Under this agreement, JFD will provide operational, engineering, maintenance, supply and training services for the ADF’s dive equipment, recompression chambers and support systems.
This highly specialised and technical equipment is crucial to ensuring the ADF can operate effectively and safely in underwater environments. The contract extension will create an additional 13 highly skilled and well-paid jobs at JFD Australia, bringing the company’s total workforce to nearly 120 nationwide.
Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Pat Conroy said, “It’s work like this that is essential to a future made in Australia, and to the more than 100,000 men and women employed in the defence industry.”
The work will be carried out at JFD Australia’s facilities across the country, including the manufacture of recompression chambers at Beresfield in the NSW Hunter region, the maintenance of rebreathers and hyperbaric chambers at Caringbah in southern Sydney, and the support of submarine escape and rescue systems at Bibra Lake, south of Perth.
“This contract with JFD Australia’s is another example of the Albanese government backing local industry and supporting local jobs and will ensure the company can continue manufacturing in the Hunter,” Minister Conroy said.
This diving and hyperbaric equipment enables a range of joint force operations, including mine countermeasures, mine warfare, maritime explosive ordnance disposal, advanced force operations, reconnaissance and underwater battle damage repair.
The specialised equipment will be used to support a wide range of underwater tasks for both Navy clearance and ship’s divers, as well as Army work divers.
JFD was established in 2014 through the merger of James Fisher Defence and Divex and has since expanded its capabilities with key acquisitions, including the National Hyperbaric Centre in 2015, LEXMAR in 2016 to enhance diving and saturation diving systems, and Cowan Manufacturing in 2018, a specialist in diving and recompression technology.
