| Industry | Aerospace & Space, Defence, Security, Transport |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Sydney, Australia |
| Key people | C. Jenkins (CEO Australia / New Zealand) |
| Revenue | A$1 billion (2009) [1] |
| Employees | 3500 [1] |
| Parent | Thales Group |
| Website | Thales Australia Website |
Thales Australia (formerly ADI Limited) is a primary defence contractor for the Australian Defence Force. Thales Australia is best known for its naval ship repair operations, and currently leases the Captain Cook graving dock at Garden Island Naval Base in Sydney, New South Wales and also leases and occupies many of the buildings there. ADI's large site in St Mary's in western Sydney is being progressively being repatriated for residential development with their munitions capability being consolidated in Benalla, Victoria and their testing facilities being sold to Vipac Engineers and Scientists. ADI manufactured the Steyr AUG based, F88 Austeyr assault rifle at Lithgow Small Arms Factory. ADI also produced a variety of smokeless powders for reloading rifle, pistol & shotgun cartridges, production of Australian armoured vehicles, such as the Bushmaster and producing Australian specific modifications to imported military vehicles.
In previous years, ADI was the sole defence contractor in Australia, although this changed with the creation of the Tenix Group company, Tenix Defence.
ADI was based on Garden Island Naval Base in Sydney, New South Wales, though they also maintained a R&D/Custom production facility in Brisbane, Australia. In 2004 they applied to the Australian Equal Opportunities Commission to exclude workers of certain nationalities for security reasons.[2]
In October 2006, the Australian federal government allowed Transfield Holdings to sell their 50% shareholding in ADI to the Thales Group's Australian holdings, the Australian branch of the French military engineering firm. All ADI operations have been taken over by the company, which is now known as Thales Australia.[3]