Son of a gun: NIOA sets sights on small arms manufacturing
Brisbane-based ammunition manufacturer NIOA is investigating an expansion into guns and has pinched key staff and set up a base in Lithgow, the centre of gun manufacturing in Australia.
Senior weapons design engineers Richard Basladynski and Jason Jonker, and weapons business development specialist Peter McLeod, all with previous associations to Lithgow-based small arms manufacturing, have recently joined NIOA.
The company also bought historic property Lidsdale House in Lithgow to serve as its base, but has not yet made any commitment.
The Government-owned Small Arms Factory (SAF) is in Lithgow and it has produced guns for Australian troops since World War 1. The SAF began making the Lee-Enfield .303 bolt action rifle in 1912, which became the standard weapon of British and Empire forces.
NIOA is the prime contractor for Stage 1 of Tranche 1 of the Australian Army’s LAND 159 Lethality Systems program to modernise the ADF’s weapons systems.
Chief executive Robert Nioa said the immediate plan was to establish corporate facilities in Lithgow to explore options.
“At this stage it is too early to determine what the outcome of those explorations will be,” Nioa said.
“As the prime contractor for Stage 1 of Tranche 1 of LAND 159, we are now preparing options for Tranche 2 of the program and beyond with a focus on domestic manufacture.’’
“Although current weapons manufacturing at Lithgow is significantly reduced in scale to previous generations, Lithgow remains an area that has a long association with the production of weapons for the ADF,’’ he said.
“As the only Australian-owned prime contractor in the weapons and munitions space, NIOA is committed to investing in and growing our domestic weapons and munitions industrial base.’’
Munitions and small arms research, design, development and manufacture have been identified as one of the Federal Government’s top 10 Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities (SICP).
NIOA recently invested $130m in domestic munitions and explosives manufacturing including a $60m artillery shell forging plant in Maryborough with joint-venture partner Rheinmetall Waffe Munitions, a $13m refurbishment of the Government-owned Contractor-operated (GoCo) munitions plant at Benalla in Victoria, and an $11m extension of its Brisbane headquarters.
