"We support Australian industry" is not an AIC plan. It's the sentence that loses defence logistics tenders.

Materiel sustainment contracts run on the ASDEFCON (Support) template, and the Australian Industry Capability plan inside them is a scored criterion, marked on named suppliers and measurable local content, not sentiment. Logistics firms with genuinely Australian supply chains lose to competitors who simply documented theirs properly.

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The opportunity

Sustainment outlasts acquisition

Every platform Defence buys needs decades of feeding, spares, warehousing, distribution, maintenance support, fleet management. That sustainment work is procured largely through CASG on the ASDEFCON (Support) template, reaching the market via AusTender and the supply chains of the primes who hold the head contracts. Australia's $330B+ defence investment over the decade means the sustainment tail keeps growing long after the acquisition headlines fade.

Commercial logistics credentials only take you to the door. What defence procurement scores that commercial procurement doesn't: sovereign supply chain resilience, Australian Industry Capability as an explicit weighted criterion, security obligations under DISP, and a template structure that treats a well-run 3PL proposal as a formatting error. The winners treat the AIC plan as a bid document in its own right, not an appendix.

What we deliver

Sustainment bids built to the template

AIC plans built as scored documents

Named Australian suppliers, mapped supply chains, and local content commitments expressed as percentages your business can actually defend at contract review, because evaluators check, and so do auditors.

ASDEFCON (Support) structured responses

Statement of work cross-referenced, clause structure followed, compliance matrix complete. The template is the marking scheme; we write to it.

Sustainment methodology

Warehousing, distribution, surge and performance reporting written the way sustainment contracts are actually managed, against measures, not adjectives.

DISP readiness assessment

Whether your security posture matches what the contract requires for facilities, personnel and information handling, resolved at go/no-go.

Personnel & clearance schedules

Roles mapped to vetting levels with sponsorship pathways, so the transition plan holds up when an evaluator checks the maths on mobilisation.

End-to-end bid management

24-hour go/no-go, security management plan, risk and transition planning, reviews and lodgement, the discipline behind 1,000+ submissions and 100% client retention.

The VXS evaluation lens

How sustainment tenders are scored, and where bids die

Critical sections in every sustainment tender

AIC plan, the section this niche is won on: named suppliers, local content percentages, supply chain maps
Technical response mapped to the ASDEFCON (Support) clause structure, compliance before merit
Support & sustainment methodology, inventory, distribution, surge, performance measurement and reporting
Personnel & clearance schedule, vetting levels and lead times shown, not assumed
Security management plan, assessed against DISP obligations
Risk & transition plan, especially where you're displacing an incumbent

Where sustainment bids fail

AIC plans that declare support for Australian industry but name no suppliers and commit to no percentages, scored accordingly
A commercial 3PL proposal lodged against an ASDEFCON (Support) RFT, non-compliant on structure
Boilerplate security plans that don't meet DISP
Transition plans with no answer to taking over from an incumbent's systems, stock and data
Personnel schedules missing clearance levels entirely

The pattern across all of them: the bid was written to describe the business, not to answer the evaluation.

FAQ

Asked before every sustainment bid

What is an AIC plan and is it scored?

The Australian Industry Capability plan sets out how the contract builds Australian industry, which suppliers you'll use, how much of the work stays onshore, and how you'll grow local capability over the contract term. In ASDEFCON-based sustainment procurements it's an explicitly scored criterion, and the scoring rewards specificity: named companies, defensible local content figures, and commitments that survive contract audit. It's the single most under-prepared section we see in logistics bids.

Do we need DISP membership to win defence logistics work?

Where the contract involves access to defence establishments, defence information or controlled stock, which sustainment work usually does, DISP membership is effectively mandatory at some level. RFTs vary on whether it's required at tender or by award, and primes flow the obligation down their supply chains. We check your DISP position as part of the 24-hour go/no-go, because finding out late is how bid budgets get wasted.

Can SMEs realistically win defence contracts?

In sustainment, genuinely yes, sovereign supply chain policy works in favour of Australian SMEs, and primes are scored on the AIC commitments they make, which means they need capable local suppliers to name. That makes your capability statement a live asset even between tenders. CDIC supports SMEs entering the sector; the practical hurdles are DISP, vetting and learning to bid in template formats, all solvable.

Planning a defence bid?

We review your DISP status, capability alignment and ASDEFCON readiness before you commit.