This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Department of Defence’s (Defence’s) implementation of the Defence Industrial Capability Plan (DICP), which was announced in 2018.

Under the DICP, Defence planned to release an implementation plan for each of the Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities (SICPs) from mid-2019; develop industrial strategies for each of the integrated investment program capability streams; undertake assurance work for each SICP; and put in place indicators to measure progress/success. SICPs are industrial capabilities considered critical to Defence and for which Australia must have access to, or control over, the skills, technology, intellectual property, financial resources and infrastructure that underpin those capabilities. There were 10 initial SICPs identified in the 2018 DICP. Four new priorities were announced in late 2021.