This article provides information on the industrial sector in Victoria (Australia) that supplies goods and services to defence and military customers (national governments) and associated supply chain.

The Government of Victoria has stated that the defence industry, including military equipment manufacture as well as design, technology support and other services, is a priority industry for the economic development of the State.

Some examples of defence projects completed or underway in Victoria include:

Victorian defence businesses have also enjoyed successes in defence exports and global integration. For example: Tenix Defence is completing Project Protector at Williamstown for the New Zealand Government, Thales Australia has sold military vehicles to the US, Canada, the UAE and the Netherlands, Nulka and ESSM technologies have been successfully exported, and GKN is providing high level design support to international primes on global projects such as Joint Strike Fighter.

Victoria is also home to the Defence Materials Technology Centre, Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Note: unless otherwise indicated, data in this section is from "Project to measure Victoria's defence industry activity" written by Australian Aerospace and Defence Innovations Ltd, June 2006. [2]

Approximately 25 percent of defence industry activity in Australia occurs in Victoria, despite the fact that Victoria has few major military bases and consequently fewer opportunities to supply maintenance and overhaul services to Defence assets. The core of Victoria's defence industry (being those businesses with more than 50 percent of revenue derived from defence customers) has a turnover in excess of $1.2 billion per annum, employing over 10,500 Victorians.

About 60 percent of this employment is by the 19 Prime and Tier 1 defence contractors that undertake defence work in Victoria.