Field Note 04 / Interactive Tool
Navigating the Australian Defence Procurement Landscape.
If you're building a defence or dual-use company, VC-backed or not, 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.
Ready to map your way in?
Three quick questions, and your route through the whole system lights up below.
Two things worth knowing before you start. Defence rarely buys directly from startups; you'll almost always enter through the programs and gatekeepers this map charts. And you don't need venture backing: grants, defence programs and customer revenue are all valid ways through.
Colour key
By function
Tick a box above, or try a preset, and your path lights up on the map in rough priority order. Most of these run in parallel, not one after another.
Enter your email to save your results and get a personalised follow-up.
Thanks, that's saved. I'll follow up personally.
Context: why AUKUS Pillar 2 matters
AUKUS Pillar 2 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 pace and the collaboration keep growing.
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
DISP is the Defence Industry Security Program, Defence's security vetting scheme, and membership is non-negotiable for serious defence conversations, from CASG (Capability Acquisition & Sustainment Group, Defence's buying arm) 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 the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (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 (Small Business Innovation Research for Defence), Defence Trailblazer's High Growth Incubation and the Advanced Capability Investment Fund are all worth exploring alongside, or instead of, 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.
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.
About this map
How the Australian defence procurement system fits together
The Australian defence procurement and innovation ecosystem is one of the hardest markets in the country to read from outside. Capability requirements originate in one part of the system, funding decisions are made in another, and contracts are frequently let by prime contractors rather than by the Department of Defence itself. For a venture-backed deep tech or dual-use founder, working out where you actually enter the system is the first problem, and it is rarely written down in one place.
This interactive map draws the ecosystem as a single blueprint. It covers the layers a founder needs to understand: the government and ministerial level where priorities are set; the Australian Defence Force and its service branches; the acquisition and delivery organisations that buy and field capability; the innovation and science pathway, including the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG); the research base of universities and CSIRO; the industrial base of prime contractors and SMEs, including the Defence Industry Security Program (DISP); state government defence agencies; the policy and advocacy institutions that shape the debate; and the venture capital and international partners, including AUKUS-aligned investors, that fund companies through the journey.
Tick the boxes that describe your company, your domain, your technology maturity, whether you are defence-native or dual-use, and your capital stage, and the map lights up a suggested pathway through the system, node by node, with a plain-language explanation of what each organisation does, what it wants from a startup, and how to approach it.
The map is built for founders asking practical questions: how to sell to Australian Defence as a startup, where ASCA fits relative to CASG and the new delivery structures, what DISP membership is and when to start it, why prime contractors are often the real customer, and which doors are worth knocking on at each stage of company maturity.
Australia's defence structure is in transition and names, groups and reporting lines move. Treat this map as an orientation tool, verify every node against current Australian Government and Department of Defence sources before acting, and read it alongside the 2026 Defence Innovation, Science and Technology Strategy analysis in Field Notes.
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.