Field Notes / Interactive Tool
Navigating the Australian Defence Procurement Landscape.
If you're a VC-backed startup in the defence space, working out who's who, and how they all relate to one another, can feel close to impossible. This is a go-to-market tool, not just an overview: read it left to right, from where you sit today in industry and the wider ecosystem, through to Defence itself. Tick what describes you and your way through it lights up, node by node.
AUKUS Pillar 2 is reshaping this landscape faster than almost anything else. It offers near-term opportunities for Australian companies to design, test and integrate technology directly into allied systems, most recently through the first Pillar II Signature Project, uncrewed undersea vehicle payloads, announced in May 2026. The trilateral licence-free export environment between Australia, the UK and the US has already been used over 640 times by more than 380 Australian entities, facilitating over AUD 60 million in licence-free exports as at June 2025, and both the cost and the collaboration keep growing.
Colour key
By function
Tick a box above and your path lights up on the map, in order.
Enter your email to save your results and get a personalised follow-up.
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fig. 01: tick your profile above to light up your path
Before you have these conversations
A readiness checklist
Hopefully you're clear on the path forward, but let's ensure your value proposition lands clearly in the room.
Your narrative is anchored to a named problem
Not "here's our product", but "here's the capability gap in the National Defence Strategy, Integrated Investment Program or a named mission that we close." Defence buys capability gaps, not products, so lead with the problem your technology solves, not the technology itself.
DISP membership is underway
Security vetting is non-negotiable for serious defence conversations, from CASG to a prime. Assessment and clearance timelines commonly run several months, so start well before you need it.
Your export-control position is understood
Know whether the Defence Trade Controls Act, and US ITAR where relevant, apply to your technology. This is a critical blind spot for many founders, and it shapes who you can talk to and what you can show them.
You understand the prime relationship
Most startups engage Defence via a prime, BAE Systems Australia, Lockheed Martin Australia, Raytheon Australia or Thales Australia, rather than going direct. Primes are the real gatekeepers into CASG-run programs.
You have a view of the funding pathway
There are more non-dilutive routes than founders realise. SBIRD, Defence Trailblazer's High Growth Incubation and the Advanced Capability Investment Fund are all worth exploring alongside a private raise.
You've checked your AUKUS Pillar 2 alignment
If your technology touches AI, autonomy, cyber, quantum or undersea systems, it may be directly relevant to Pillar 2. The trilateral licence-free export environment is already reducing costs and unlocking collaboration for aligned companies.
How to use this
Reading the blueprint
- The map reads as a spectrum, left to right: industry and the wider ecosystem on the left, Defence itself on the right. The doors a startup can actually approach sit on the left; the columns get harder to reach the further right you go.
- Government direction, on the far right, isn't a destination to reach directly, it's the context that shapes everything else. The real doors are capability strategy and acquisition & delivery, one and two columns to its left.
- Capital & influence sits early in the spectrum because it's foundational, not because it's a one-time gate: in practice you'll return to it throughout, not just at the start.
- A dashed gold outline marks a realistic startup entry point when that layer is switched on.
- A system-level orientation and go-to-market tool. It does not show every unit, committee or programme.
Australia's defence structure is currently in mid-transition, and further change is expected. This blueprint was built from publicly available sources and is intended as a useful, indicative guide to navigating the landscape, not a definitive record. Please do your own due diligence and confirm details against current Australian Government and Department of Defence sources before acting on them.
Murphy & Company is not a procurement adviser, but can help you position your company for procurement and growth moving forward.
Your path is clear. Now let's talk about your narrative.
Knowing where you sit in this ecosystem is just the beginning. Speaking a language that gets primes, investors and requirement owners excited, in the context of what the system actually wants, is where the real craft comes in: closing what I call the commercial translation gap. If that's where you need help, let's talk.
Or if you'd rather talk it through directly, get in touch.
Built by Chris Murphy. I help defence-tech founders close the commercial translation gap.
Fifteen years of cross-category growth and brand work, including Equilibrium Aerospace and Atomic Tessellator.