CANBERRA, Australia, 28 May 2024 - Thousands of Australian SMEs will have the opportunity to work under one supply chain system that will slash red tape and the costs of doing business with the Australian Department of Defence and major primes in the nation’s defence sector.

The system emulates a successful program in the United Kingdom and has already been adopted locally by the Department of Defence and companies including BAE Systems Australia, Raytheon Australia, Babcock Australasia (Babcock), Lockheed Martin Australia, Boeing Defence Australia, and Saab Australia.

Known as JOSCAR, the UK system currently comprises two dozen major defence companies and 6,000 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and constitutes a supplier management community that has slashed compliance and administration costs for UK buyers and suppliers.

“Australian SMEs now have the opportunity to secure the same benefits through the introduction of a standardised and simplified approach that has the endorsement of a number of major primes,” said Tom Maund, Country Manager of Hellios Australia, the UK-based supplier information and risk management company that has developed the new system.

The system offers a 'one to many' solution where a supplier only needs to fill in the JOSCAR questionnaire once, even if it supplies multiple defence primes and the Department of Defence.

Industry has welcomed the new system and the prospect of lower costs passed on to members of the SME community.

Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand Chief Executive Warren McDonald said, “JOSCAR will improve collaboration and efficiency for our suppliers and partners, enabling defence industry to be more focused on the critical task at hand – delivering capabilities to the Australian Defence Force.”

"This is a great initiative and one that our company wholeheartedly endorses,” said Ben Hudson, Chief Executive Officer, BAE Systems Australia. “We’re looking forward to working with industry and the system’s architects to ensure supplier efficiencies can be implemented across our major programs.”

“Saab is looking forward to the introduction of JOSCAR which will create efficiencies across the supply chain and help reduce costs that are ultimately passed on to our customers.” said Andy Keough CSC, Managing Director Saab Australia.

Managing Director Raytheon Australia, Michael Ward said: “JOSCAR is a welcome addition to our partnerships with small to medium Australian industry. Supporting our enduring collaboration with organisations including our Capability Plus partners, JOSCAR enhances our ability to create new and easier pathways for SMEs to do even more work with Defence.”

“Boeing is pleased to collaborate with Australian Defence Primes on JOSCAR and continue our support of small-to-medium Australian companies, so they can focus on efficiently bringing capability to Defence industry that our customers can benefit from,” said Amy List, Managing Director of Boeing Defence Australia.

Babcock’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Cridland said: “Babcock is committed to minimising the barriers to entry for SMEs wanting to break into the defence industry. By using JOSCAR, we are making it easier for our partners and suppliers to do business with us. “

The Australian JOSCAR system will be managed and supported by a Hellios team based in Brisbane and led by Tom Maund. JOSCAR will launch in June 2024.

About JOSCAR:

The JOSCAR system streamlines supplier compliance data management with a one-to-many 'community' approach, aligning requirements across Primes. It centralises assurance information and reduces time, effort, duplication, and costs for both buyers and suppliers.

About Hellios:
Hellios is a supplier information and risk management company operating in the financial services and aerospace, defence and security industry. The business has grown rapidly from a start-up in 2012 to more than 100 employees with subsidiaries in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, and Spain.

For more information, please visit www.hellios.com/joscar-au/ or view launch video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhZhrMBeBac

For Press Enquiries Please contact:

Lucy Slater, Head of Marketing, Lucy.slater@hellios.com, +44 (0) 7732 901 176

About Lockheed Martin Australia

Headquartered in Canberra, Lockheed Martin Australia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation. The company employs more than 1,500 people in Australia working on a wide range of major programs spanning the aerospace, Defence and civil sectors.

Media Contacts:

Stacey Ward, +61 439 369 305, stacey.l.ward@global.lmco.com (AU)