Australia and India have an opportunity to move beyond traditional defence trade towards an integrated and commercially sustainable defence-industrial relationship, built around their complementary capabilities in innovation, advanced technologies, manufacturing and critical supply chains.
This paper was prepared as part of the Institutes Defence Special Visitors Program for 2026. It highlights the potential to strengthen cooperation across the defence innovation ecosystem by connecting research and development with industry-led co-development, testing, procurement and co-production; identifying practical opportunities in emerging technologies such as autonomous and undersea systems; and building resilient supply chains for critical minerals and other inputs essential to future defence capabilities.
The special visitors for 2026 include:
- Dr Ramu C.M., Senior Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst at Bayer, on “Beyond Mineral Security: Building an Australia –India Critical Minerals Partnership for Defence Industrial Resilience”.
- Dr Shayesta Nishat Ahmed, Research Analyst at the Centre for Defence Economics and Industry at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, on “Building the Case for India-Australia DefenceInnovation Partnership”.
- Ms Sushmita Sihwag, Research Associate at the National Maritime Foundation, on “Accelerating India-Australia Defence Industrial Cooperation in Undersea Technologies.”