Queensland Uses $180M Fund to Boost Defense and Aerospace Growth

Two billion dollars in financing requests rolled in for just AU$180.6 million ($123.71 million) available through Queensland’s Sovereign Industry Development Fund, Aviation Week reported.

State officials deployed the money to turn the Australian region into a hub for defense manufacturing and maintenance, backing projects ranging from rocket testing to military aircraft refinishing.

Applications for the first grant round closed on Feb. 27, drawing 250 proposals focused heavily on defense, biomedicine, and biofuel. Jarrod Bleijie, Queensland’s deputy premier, minister of development, infrastructure and planning, and minister for industrial relations, explained the regional push at Aviation Week’s MRO Australasia conference.

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains, residents questioned why Australia stopped manufacturing locally, according to Bleijie.

“We want to secure Queensland’s sovereign capability, capacity and manufacturing,” Bleijie said.

Queensland currently hosts 26% of Australia’s aerospace businesses, but the state government wants to expand that footprint.

Lockheed Martin received AU$6.38 million two weeks prior to the conference to develop a mobile rocket test and evaluation capability, partnering with the University of Queensland, Airways Trade Australia, and Rocket Technologies, Aviation Week reported. Another AU$31.64 million went to HeliMods at the Caloundra Aerodrome on the Sunshine Coast.

HeliMods will build a 10,000-m2 (107,600-ft.2) defense-grade facility to support aerospace manufacturing from systems design to life-cycle support, creating 250 jobs at an estimated project cost of AU$78.1 million.

The infrastructure builds on the company’s existing civil and government helicopter services, including emergency medical response and search and rescue.

Black Sky Aerospace secured an early tender to build a weapons test and evaluation center across more than 1 million barren acres in Thargomindah.

The remote site will give domestic and allied users a place to test explosives.

“Blow things up without neighbors worrying about it,” Bleijie said of the Thargomindah facility.

Landlocked Aviation collected AU$12 million to build a 7,685-m2 defense refinishing and maintenance facility at Wellcamp Airport as part of a total AU$52 million project. The site allows military aircraft like the C-17 Globemaster to be painted domestically rather than traveling to Asia or the United States.

Boeing is relocating the assembly of its MQ-28 Ghost Bat uncrewed combat air vehicle from Melbourne to the Wellcamp Aerospace and Defense Precinct by the end of the year, where it will utilize the new painting infrastructure.

Aviation Australia also secured AU$3 million to set up the Townsville Aviation Center of Excellence, using simulation equipment to train defense aviation maintenance engineers. Bleijie is currently in discussions with the state premier and treasurer to secure future rounds for the oversubscribed program.