Worldwide crises and increasing strategic competition have heightened the need for defence readiness. A new report from the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney argues that Australia’s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordinance (GWEO) Enterprise offers an advantageous approach to increase such readiness and strengthen regional security.

Over the course of the last two years, the USSC has convened a series of roundtables with both industry and government representatives to look at how best to turn GWEO into a reality. In Partnering for forward deterrence in the Indo-Pacific: Overcoming barriers to US-Australia cooperation on Australia’s GWEO Enterprise, Center for Strategic and International Studies Director of Defense and Senior Fellow, Defense and Security Department Dr Cynthia Cook and USSC Research Associate Kester Abbottassess Australia’s GWEO Enterprise and incorporate findings from these cross-sector roundtable discussions.

“Covid showed us the fragility of global supply chains while Ukraine demonstrated how quickly munitions supplies can dwindle. GWEO is a smart solution that addresses both of these issues, but it needs further acceleration,” USSC Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Prof. Peter Dean noted.

The GWEO Enterprise is a munitions production scheme that would increase interoperability and production options between the United States and Australia.

The report identified barriers to optimisation of the GWEO Enterprise and identified solutions to overcome these barriers. The recommendations range from securing long-term political support to mapping and accounting for supply chain vulnerabilities.

“Increasing GWEO our production helps both Australian self-reliance and Australia’s partnership the United States. GWEO contributes to deterrence and helps support ADF readiness for any contingency in the Indo-Pacific region,” Prof. Dean concluded.

Key findings

To unlock GWEO’s full potential, the United States and Australia should

United States

  • Recognise GWEO’s strategic value as a potentially important solution to US munitions shortfalls by extending and expanding the US industrial base — rather than replacing it.
  • Integrate US efforts in GWEO with existing security frameworks such as the United States’ Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience initiative to strengthen deterrence, enhance supply chain resilience and align priorities across both national and allied efforts.

Australia

  • Set a clear, long-term implementation timeline with ambitious but achievable milestones for the operationalisation of GWEO, to avoid the risk that limited progress may lead the United States to identify opportunities to acquire capabilities at the necessary speed and scale outside of Australian production networks.
  • Secure bipartisan support for sustained investment, shielding the program from potential political turnover or any disruptive changes produced by electoral cycles.

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