If the Turnbull government is to achieve its ambition of lifting Australia into the top 10 defence exporters in the world, it will be driven by local industry coming up with innovative products and systems that can find customers beyond the Australian Defence Force.

That's the view of the Australian Industry Group's head of defence policy Kate Louis, who argues exports are critical to provide local defence contractors and sub-contractors with the additional scale and markets to drive the competitiveness of local manufacturing.