Managing Director of BAE Systems in Osborne on how Falklands War inspired him

From a teenager making sense of the Falklands War to being hand-picked for a special nuclear mission – BAE boss Craig Lockhart describes the journey that landed him at Osborne.

Craig Lockhart still remembers watching the horrific Falklands War unfold on television sets across Britain as a teenager.

The war, which killed hundreds and wounded thousands more, dominated the British Zeitgeist of 1982 – when young teenagers just like Craig were attempting to make sense of a bloody conflict raging in an obscure and remote part of the South Atlantic Ocean.

“It just wan’t real – we were fighting for islands way down in the South Atlantic that I’m sure the average Briton didn’t know we still owned,” Craig says.

ASC Shipbuilding managing director Craig Lockhart. Picture: Brad Fleet

“It was like watching a movie that went on for quite a few months … I think any youngster watching that as it was being played out was surreal and probably drew a lot of people into the armed forces after that.”

Craig, now 55 and the Managing Director of defence giant BAE Systems Australia in Osborne, recalls how the Falklands War inspired him as a teenager living on the Fife peninsula in Scotland to launch a career in defence.

Combining his natural inquisitiveness with inspiration to serve the United Kingdom, he joined the Ministry of Defence as a technician apprentice in 1984.

He was hand-picked to join a select team of fewer than six students studying at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, after joining defence company Babcock in 1987.

Becoming a senior development engineer, Craig worked in an exclusive civilian team responsible for the hair-raising task of preparing submarine nuclear reactors for maintenance at the Rosyth Dockyard in Scotland. It was during this period in the 90s and into the early 2000s when Craig would join a team that overhauled how the UK’s future nuclear submarines were built – after discovering major structural issues with the nuclear reactors powering the Royal Navy’s second generation of nuclear submarines.

In 2015, Craig launched his first stint in Australia to expand Babcock’s operation in the country, before returning back to the UK. In 2019, he joined BAE Systems, which he described as signing for a rival football team and became the company’s Australian managing director.

Craig said he could not turn down the opportunity to build the most complex warships ever built in Australia – the Hunter-class frigates.

“I find (Australia) to be really entrepreneurial – there’s a real spirit that says ‘we can do this’.” Craig said.

“There’s so much innovation and thought leadership coming out of Australia … there’s a real drive to be better and a real drive, as a relatively young country, to create its own identity with some big, very established players and that’s one quality I really admire.”

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