Defence due diligence

Australia’s defence industry is a highly innovative and technologically advanced body, playing a critical key role in the support of the Australian Defence Force capability.

Our defence industry provides the Australian Defence Force with a wide range of specialist services, from the provision and maintenance of military equipment to the delivery of a wide range of support services.

Taking into consideration the activities undertaken by Defence and the equipment used, the industry is one which is subject to significant risk issues, particularly relating to safety. These are issues that Defence must consider and actively address. With defence companies undertaking an increasing number of technological projects for the ADF which must be completed on time and on budget, the risks involved pose wider business and reputational ramifications.

To deal with these issues, the team at R2A has developed safety case and due diligence arguments to ensure all reasonable practicable precautions are in place. These precautionary efforts take into consideration the significance of the risk versus the effort required to reduce it.

Project Overview // Information & Communications Technology Sourcing Reform Project

The Sourcing Reform Branch enlisted R2A to undertake a project due diligence review for the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Sourcing Reform Project, as part of Defence’s Strategic Reform Program. By rationalising the current plethora of ICT contracts and implementing other efficiency measures, significant savings could be achieved.

R2A’s project due diligence process identifies the critical success factors, threats and vulnerabilities by encouraging the project team to place themselves at the end of the successful project. The project team are then to look back on what must have been achieved and what hurdles must have been overcome to get them to completion. This process allows a more holistic perspective that puts issues in context and prevents a bias towards current problems.

Project Overview // Small Arms Management System

A risk review of the proposed small arms labeling management system has been completed using a workshop-based threat-barrier diagram approach. The review concluded that the proposed labeling system will reduce the relative likelihood of a weapon of unknown status with the user in the field by a factor of at least 1000.

Defence Clients

• Australian Government Department of Defence

• The Australian Army

• Royal Australian Navy