Saab Australia has announced it will expand its capabilities in Australia with a move to a new national headquarters facility in Adelaide.

Scheduled to commence construction this year, the new facility has been partly enabled by a $22 million grant from the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative, and the company says it is part of its internationalisation strategy which is focused in selected countries such as Australia.

“After three decades of commitment to Australia, and twenty years after we built our Mawson Lakes headquarters, we are proud and excited to invest further in our continued evolution and the growth of Australian defence and manufacturing,” Saab Australia Managing Director, Andy Keough said in a 9 March release. “This grant will complement Saab’s investment of $55 million to increase the size of the current Adelaide facility by 80 per cent over an 18-month construction timeframe.”

“The larger facilities will create over 450 long-term jobs, which include Saab employees, small and medium-sized enterprises’ employment, and flow on through the industry eco-system and supporting services. It will also support over 500 jobs during the construction process across the next 18 months.”

Saab says the new facility will be a “collaborative ecosystem which further drives innovative commercialisation, manufacturing, technology, and increased sovereign capability”. It will contain a Sovereign Combat System Collaboration Centre, production and prototyping facilities, and system integration and test facilities, and Saab says these will be available to facilitate and support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SME) product development programs.