By Staff Writer.
After a long absence, the United Kingdom is once participating in the Indo-Pacific region’s military and security environment. But the fresh interest is not just about UK defence forces increasing their presence in the region, it is also about business and the UK defence and security export industries expanding their footprint in the Indo-Pacific.
Driving the UK’s reorientation towards the Indo-Pacific are the region’s changing geopolitics and the substantial number of local security partners that have longstanding trade and security ties with the UK.
The UK’s 2021 Defence and Security Industrial Strategy recently provided that country’s defence and security sectors with a framework to export their capabilities and technologies to partner countries, including Australia.
UK Government agency, the UK Defence and Security Exports (UKDSE), was behind the UK pavillion at the recent Indo-Pacific maritime expo in Sydney. Seven hundred and thirty-six participating exhibitor companies from 23 countries were at the blockbuster three-day event, including over 20 UK-based defence and security exporters.
Airborne Sat Phone monitoring manufacturer Horizon Technologies made the long trek to Sydney, as did autonomous underwater equipment and systems maker Sonardyne and naval surveillance and fire control systems builder Chess Dynamics.
Based in Horsham, south of London, Chess Dynamics brought its Sea Eagle FCEO electro-optical fire control director to the expo. Able to control any ‘in-service’ naval gun from 30mm to 127mm for fire against air, surface and shore targets and already in service with the Royal Navy, Chess Dynamics Naval Sales Manager Martin Reed was keen to show the thousands of Royal Australian Navy attendees at the expo what his weapons platform could do.
While Australian defence and security companies are keen to export their capabilities, their peer companies located elsewhere are equally keen for a slice of the burgeoning defence spends in the Indo-Pacific region.
“If you want a vibrant industrial base to supply your own sovereign capability, we have to recognise it needs to have a bigger customer base than the one defence establishment,” says UKDSE Director Mark Goldsack.
Mr Goldsack says the UK Defence and Security Industrial Strategy gives companies clear guidelines and identifies particular capabilities for which the UK Government wants overseas partnerships.
“We’re not talking about flash in the pan solutions. The sort of capabilities we want take years to generate but are sustainable for years and take years to bring out of service and refresh. This is about building long term relationships but trying to use them all in a way that gives us all a cutting edge.”
In 2020, the UK’s military and security exports totalled £7.95 billion, or about 6% of the global defence export market. In 2020, Europe was the biggest importer of UK military and security equipment, followed by North America, the Middle East, and then the Asia-Pacific region, where UK sourced equipment accounted for just 8% of the region’s military and security imports that year.
Defence spending is up among many of the UK’s top security partners in the Indo-Pacific region. In 2021, Japan spent US$54.1 billion on defence, up 7.3% from 2020’s spend. South Korea spent $50.2 billion, up 4.7%. Australia spent $31.8 billion, up 4.0%. Taiwan spent $13.0 billion, up 1%, and Singapore spent $11.1 billion, up a handsome 7.1%. In Australia’s case, military spending has increased by 42% over the last decade. They are growing markets with strong security ties to the UK, making them potentially valuable export markets.
Dorchester based Atlas Elektronik attended the Indo-Pacific expo and teamed up with US-based SeeByte and Saab Australia (Saab), Leidos Australia to bid for the delivery of the Royal Australian Navy’s SEA 1905 Tranche 1 – Maritime Mine Countermeasures and Military Survey program.
Atlas Elektronik is using its local SME subsidiary Sonartech Atlas in the bid involving the multi-billion dollar build of future mine warfare and hydrographic vessels.
It’s the kind of joint Indo-Pacific incursion involving trusted companies from trusted countries that the UK Government wants to encourage.
“As an independent trading nation, global Britain absolutely sees the case for working together with partners to champion free and fair trade,” says Andrew Mitchell from the UK’s Department of International Trade. “Trade policy is designed to deliver on our government’s economic aim. The Indo-Pacific tilt reflects that sort of global reorientation for economic opportunities and security values.”
It’s not just UK suppliers of eye-catching weapons and slick pieces of kit that are eyeing the Indo-Pacific defence markets. UK-based Isode makes mission critical software for military use, including military messaging, military XMPP servers, and high-end directory servers for armed forces. IMI Critical design, manufacture and service specialist valves and actuators. Valves and actuators don’t catch the eye like a weapons platform, but they are essential cogs in the chain that make equipment work well. In this case, the valves and actuators precisely control the flow of steam, gas and liquids under extremes of pressure and temperature.
Both the UK companies were spruiking their products at the Indo-Pacific expo. In the case of IMI Critical, they also recently opened a specialised marine division in Adelaide’s space, defence, hi-tech and creative innovation precinct. The company already has its marine valves installed on Australia’s Anzac class frigates, Hobart class destroyers and Collins class submarines. IMI Critical sees growth in Australia’s defence market and views Adelaide as a springboard for growth around the Indo-Pacific region.
The UK Government’s push into the Indo-Pacific is about more than defence and security. It is also about trade and building ties with a part of the world the UK has benignly ignored since the collapse of its colonial system. But Mark Goldsack argues the connections run deep. Critical components of any defence and security transaction – trust, reliability, and steadfastness, still exist in the relationships between the UK and its Indo-Pacific security partners, which certainly helps streamline the sales process.
Mr Goldsack also argues the UK returns to the Indo-Pacific with one big competitive advantage – its reputation for quality, adding;
“The quality that people have come to expect from British produced goods is really important in the global marketplace – we are known for that quality. While we are not always the cheapest, the quality nobody argues with.”
