ALL FIELD
REPORTS.
28 intelligence briefs in archive — page 1 of 4
From First Registration to First Contract: The SME Defence Tender Playbook
The path from "we could do Defence work" to a signed contract has a sequence — and most SMEs run it backwards. The playbook: registrations, compliance, panels, then bids. In that order, or not at all.
Henderson's Workforce Crunch — Defence and Mining Are About to Fight for 10,000 Workers
The WA Government wants defence to become the state's second-largest industry within a decade. That ambition collides with a hard constraint: the Henderson build-out must compete with the resources sector for the same tradespeople, engineers and cleared specialists.
A PLA Task Group in the Tasman: What China's Australian Circumnavigation Told Us About the Next Decade
When a People's Liberation Army Navy task group sailed around Australia and fired live rounds in the Tasman Sea, it was not a one-off provocation — it was a rehearsal for presence. What that means for strategy, spending, and the defence industrial base Australia now has to build.
The Real AUKUS Bottleneck Was Never the Submarines — It Is Cleared People
Steel, reactors and dry docks get the headlines. But the binding constraint on AUKUS delivery is quieter: there are not enough security-cleared workers, and clearances take months you cannot compress. Compliance capacity — not industrial capacity — is the real critical path.
Espionage Has a Business Model: Foreign Interference, AUKUS, and Why Personnel Security Exists
ASIO has said it plainly: AUKUS is a priority target for foreign intelligence services. The personnel security domain of DISP — clearances, FOCI declarations, foreign contact reporting — is not bureaucracy. It is the counter-intelligence perimeter.
Five Security Clauses That Decide Whether Your Defence Bid Lives or Dies
Buried in every Defence RFT is a handful of security clauses that quietly determine who can win. Read them first, price them honestly, and never treat them as boilerplate — the ANAO has shown Defence enforces them.
Winning Work at the Henderson Defence Precinct — The WA Contractor's DISP and Security Playbook
Henderson will generate two decades of construction, engineering and sustainment work — but the entry ticket is compliance. The complete playbook for WA businesses: DISP membership, personnel clearances, export controls, and how to position before the first major contracts are let.
The Panel Is the Prize: How Defence Contract Panels Really Work — and Where DISP Fits
Most Defence work never goes to open tender — it flows through pre-qualified panels. Understanding how panels are established, refreshed and used is the difference between watching Defence work and winning it. And DISP is usually the first gate.
The ITAR Unlock: How the AUKUS Export Control Exemption Actually Changes Life for Australian Contractors
The September 2024 ITAR exemption and Australia's Defence Trade Controls Amendment Act removed thousands of licences from AUKUS trade. But "licence-free" does not mean "compliance-free" — and the eligibility rules trip up contractors who assume otherwise.