Defence & Security Podcast Network

Port Wakefield is not a replica of Camden. This distinction matters enormously. James Heading, director and general manager for missiles and fire control at Lockheed Martin Australia, has spent 18 months driving that message home to critics who dismiss the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System operation as mere assembly.
The risk reduction activity that concluded with successful live-fire testing earlier this year was never about final-form production. It was methodical de-risking: importing weapons kits from Arkansas, standing up Australian manufacturing processes, qualifying teams in explosive handling and weapons assembly, and crucially extracting the tacit knowledge embedded in American production – then questioning why certain processes exist at all.
That interrogation has yielded reciprocal innovation. Australian engineers have challenged inherited US procedures, clarifying ambiguous processes, suggesting alternatives that improve manufacturing robustness and reduce waste. Heading describes a two-way street where US counterparts now learn from Australian precision-engineering heritage inherited from automotive manufacturing.
The real strategic architecture emerges with the weapons manufacturing complex now in detailed design. Port Wakefield was the proof of concept. The next facility will embed flexibility: modular layout, scalable production capacity targeting 4,000 GMLRS annually (versus 14,000 in Camden), and future-proofing for Prism precision-strike missiles and emerging hypersonic systems. Crucially, it positions Australia as a force multiplier in global supply chains, where specialised components – canards, control actuation systems, castings and optics – matter as much as final assembly.
The bottleneck remains an unspoken demand signal. Heading emphasises that industry cannot scale investment without clarity on procurement numbers. How many GMLRS does Defence need? What about air defence effectors for LAND 6504? Lessons from Europe and Middle Eastern conflicts inform strategy but don't dictate it.
Without articulated demand, Australia risks capability infrastructure without corresponding production velocity.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect Spotlight team

Microsoft 365 is the backbone of many Australian businesses – but are organisations doing enough to secure the platform itself? Tune in to David Hollingworth and CoreView's vice president of APAC sales, Andrew McAllister, as they tackle the risks and what businesses can do to build genuine resilience.

Microsoft 365 may be ubiquitous, but that doesn't mean it is secure by default. Hollingworth and McAllister explore the often-overlooked risks lurking in tenant configurations, administrative privileges and guest accounts, and explain why organisations need to take greater responsibility for how their Microsoft environments are configured and governed.
The conversation also examines how attackers are exploiting compromised admin accounts to manipulate settings, bypass security controls, and gain deeper access to sensitive data. McAllister explains why the traditional Microsoft 365 admin model can create an unnecessarily large blast radius, and how organisations can apply least privilege, role-based access and tighter identity controls to reduce their exposure.
Finally, Hollingworth and McAllister examine what a mature Microsoft 365 resilience strategy should look like – from establishing a secure configuration baseline and detecting configuration drift to automated remediation and recovering the tenant itself after a serious compromise.
Listen to the full episode to find out why backing up your data isn't enough – and what organisations need to do to protect the "glass" holding it.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

How can Australia strengthen the protection of critical defence infrastructure while navigating the modern drone-heavy environment?
In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, Stephen Kuper and Robert Dougherty unpack a series of developments across Australia's defence and national security landscape, including drone incursions over RAAF Base Williamtown, the expansion of Australia's first-person view drone capabilities, major defence industry partnerships and emerging opportunities for Australian technology exports.
Discussion includes the recent swarm of unidentified drones observed over RAAF Base Williamtown and Newcastle Airport, with the team examining the implications for the protection of Australia's air bases and high-value military assets.
The team also explores the Australian Army's growing focus on FPV drones and cooperation with New Zealand, including the development of short-range drone specialist capabilities and the role of Australian instructors in supporting New Zealand's capability development.
Attention then turns to Rolls-Royce's expanded Australian defence operations, including its new Canberra headquarters and partnership with Melbourne-based Marand Precision Engineering to supply specialised anti-submarine warfare propulsion systems for the UK's Type 26 frigate program.
The panel also examines the significant agreement between the Australian and UK governments covering CEA Technologies' radar technology, with discussion focusing on the potential scale of the export opportunity and what the partnership could mean for Australia's sovereign defence technology industry.
The episode then looks at the Global Combat Air Programme and ongoing speculation about whether Australia could eventually join the sixth-generation combat aircraft initiative.
Rounding out the episode, the pair discuss Australia's growing defence engagement with the Pacific Islands, including the Pukpuk Treaty and cooperation with Papua New Guinea, the opening of Australian-supported border outposts in Solomon Islands, and the potential for deeper regional defence cooperation.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team

An adversary's numerical advantage is something Australia faces across all domains, but the cyber domain is one area where Australia can offset that advantage, building true asymmetric capabilities.

The cyber battlespace has undergone a step change with the arrival of frontier AI models. What took penetration testers two years to accomplish, Tom Scully from Palo Alto Networks completed in three weeks when paired with Claude's Mythos model. That compression has collapsing vulnerability windows and forces a fundamental rethink of how Defence operates its security operations centres.
The asymmetry cuts both ways. Attackers now possess tools that dramatically compress exploitation timelines. But for the first time in cyber space, defenders can achieve parity through agentic AI – autonomous agents embedded in security operations that multiply human operator capacity by orders of magnitude.
Palo Alto's own security operations centre covers 23,000 users across eight data centres and 85,000 customers with just 15 people across two global locations operating 24/7/365. That scale is impossible without AI and machine learning disciplined into an integrated platform. Now, agentic AI adds the next layer: individual security operators deploying multiple AI agents to handle discrete tasks – network analysis, endpoint evaluation, reverse engineering – each agent maintaining human oversight yet operating with delegated authority.
The critical challenge is governance. Only 6 per cent of organisations possess AI governance frameworks. Scully emphasises that the framing is not about free will; it resembles a military command structure. Commanders delegate authority, set rules of engagement, define reporting protocols and remain accountable for outcomes. AI agents operate identically – given clear direction, guardrails and escalation paths.
Australia must urgently establish governance standards aligned to ISO 42001 or NIST frameworks, then enforce those standards through security tooling. Without that foundation, organisations will struggle to defend against attackers armed with frontier AI.
The decisive question is not whether to deploy agentic AI, but whether Defence can implement it faster than adversaries exploit the window before our cyber defences mature.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect Spotlight team

Australia's 2026 Defence Industry Development Strategy (DIDS) signals a significant shift in how Defence acquires capability, moving beyond traditional procurement models towards earlier collaboration with industry and a greater focus on innovation, software and continuous capability development.
The 2026 Defence Industry Development Strategy marks a doctrinal shift in how Australia approaches defence acquisition: rather than locking capability requirements and then inviting industry to bid, Defence should explore available technologies with industry partners before committing resources – fundamentally rewriting the commercial relationship between procurer and supplier.
Rebecca Humble, CEO of Aurizn, a private equity-backed Australian defence technology firm, discusses what the strategy means for Australian defence companies and why building sovereign capability requires more than policy intent alone. She explores the need for deeper engagement between Defence and industry, the role of private capital in helping Australian businesses scale, and the importance of developing a stronger ecosystem of mid-sized defence companies capable of translating innovation into enduring capability.
The conversation also examines how software, AI and digital experimentation are changing traditional acquisition approaches, why commercial incentives must support SME growth, and what Australia can learn from international models while developing an approach tailored to its own strategic and industrial environment.
Without effective implementation, the ambitions of DIDS risk remaining aspirational. But if Defence, industry and investors can work together to create stronger pathways from innovation to capability, Australia has an opportunity to build a more resilient and sustainable sovereign defence industrial base.
Critically, Humble notes Australia lacks the social licence for defence investment that the United States enjoys and has been hesitant to embrace private equity as a force multiplier for SME growth – precisely the funding model driving emerging companies towards scale.
Without deliberate policy enactment and commercial accountability, the DIDS risks remaining aspirational rather than transformative.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect Spotlight team