The 2023 Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition, held in Sydney from 7-9 November, proved momentum is strong for Australia’s naval shipbuilding industry with multiple event records broken.  

More than 27,000 delegates were in attendance across the three day event – up from 25,000 in 2022 – and the exhibition floor space was 13% larger than the previous record with 832 participating exhibitors from 21 nations.

The record-breaking streak continued for South Australia with more than 80 local organisations participating on the South Australia – The Defence State stand, which was the largest delegation of any state or territory at the event, as well as the largest hosted at any trade show in Defence SA’s history.

The event gave South Australian industry a unique platform to showcase their state-of-the-art capabilities and technologies to major partners and decision makers across the international maritime and naval defence community. View the full list of exhibitors here.

Meanwhile, the state’s leading research and education providers also demonstrated their cutting-edge defence innovations and the work being done to grow the nation’s highly skilled naval shipbuilding workforce.

While attending, a number of organisations took the opportunity to announce new products, partnerships and agreements, reinforcing that South Australia truly is a hub for defence activity. These announcements included:

• Industrial refrigeration leader, Cold Logic, being awarded a multi-million dollar contract by BAE Systems Australia to construct cold and cool rooms for the first Hunter class frigates.
• Composites and metal manufacturer, AEROBOND, announced it had secured a federal Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grant for precision guided munitions, hypersonic weapons and integrated air and missile defence systems.
• Silentium Defence became the second company outside of the US to complete the Lockheed Martin Mentor Protégé Program.
• Designer and supplier of rugged computing and technology, APC Technology, announced a newly forged distributor agreement with Cursor Controls Ltd.
• Airspeed signed a contract for the production of the Replenishment At Sea Stump Masts (RASSM) for the Hunter class frigate.
• Para Bellum Solutions and Codeac showcased a new, innovative Colorimetric Nuclear Detection product.

The next Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition is set to be held on 4-6 November 2025 at the International Convention Centre in Sydney.