Event

Indo Pacific 2025 Closes with Strong Signals for Industry, Defence and Regional Partnerships

Australia’s signature international defence and commercial maritime event returns for 2025.

4-6 November 2025 
Sydney, Australia

www.indopacificexpo.com.au

Main image credit: AMDA Foundation Limited

Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition 2025 closed its doors in Sydney after three packed days that highlighted just how rapidly Australia’s maritime and defence landscape is evolving. What began decades ago as a niche naval gathering has now grown into the Indo-Pacific region’s premier maritime exposition, and this year’s edition felt like a genuine milestone; bigger, busier and buzzing with a sense of urgency about the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

Held from 4–6 November at the International Convention Centre, Indo Pacific brought together an extraordinary mix of perspectives, with naval leaders, defence officials, researchers, engineers, start-ups, SMEs, and major primes all sharing the same floor shoulder to shoulder.  

Australia's International Defence and Commercial Maritime Exposition

In a packed three-day program, the conference and industry exhibition will address key topics in defence, industry collaboration and innovation, from changing regional relationships to strengthening sovereign supply chains, advances in ship design and maintenance, small-boat operations, helicopters and autonomous air and sea vehicles, and the thousands of technologies that allow Defence to train, operate and support its equipment and personnel at sea and on land. 

Indo Pacific has become Australia’s largest and most effective platform for engagement between industry, government, academia and navy. More than an exhibition, it is a meeting of the international civil and defence maritime community, in the national interest.  

A Record-Setting Event

Attendance reached new highs each day, making Indo Pacific 2025 the most significant edition in the event’s 25-year history: 

  • More than 28,000 attendances 
  • Over 1000 participating exhibitor companies, with almost a quarter coming from overseas 
  • Capability pavilions from every Australian state and territory 
  • National delegations from 62 countries 
  • 32 Chiefs of Navy or counterparts and 19 official representatives 
  • More than 100 conferences, symposia and presentations spread across the venue 

Credit: AMDA Foundation Limited

Walking the floor, it was impossible not to feel the density of activity. From autonomous vessels to advanced sustainment systems, underwater sensors, sovereign manufacturing solutions and small-team robotics, the technology on display was an insight into the sheer breadth of modern maritime capability.

Sea Power and Australia’s Strategic Outlook

As always, the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Conference served as the intellectual backbone of Indo Pacific. This year’s theme—“Strength at Sea = Security and Prosperity at Home”—landed with notable resonance. Presenters unpacked everything from regional power shifts to workforce readiness, infrastructure resilience and the realities of an increasingly contested maritime domain. 

What stood out, however, was the genuine effort to connect naval leadership with industry and the broader defence ecosystem. The Navy’s ongoing focus on recruitment and talent retention remained front-and-centre, reinforced by the return of the Navy Enlisted Leadership Conference, better known as the Sailors’ Forum, which prioritises leadership development from the deck plate up. 

Innovation Takes the Spotlight

One of the most energising moments of Indo Pacific 2025 came during the Innovation Pitchfest and Awards, where four standout Australian teams were recognised for breakthroughs ranging from deployable manufacturing to next-generation sensing technology. 

  • CleanSubSea Operations took out the Innovation Award for the Envirocart, an environmentally safe hull-cleaning system. 
  • PhoenixZ earned the Emerging Technology Award for its all-optical hydrophone, AOH-OCTOPUZ, aimed at transforming undersea sensing. 
  • Gallipoli Medical Research received the Blue-Sky Award for its early-stage saliva-based test for liver disease in veterans and defence personnel. 
  • Joshua Wigley of Hyperion Systems was named Young Innovator of the Year for a containerised robotic 3D-printing cell designed for rapid, large-scale manufacturing. 


​​​​​​​These awards have now collectively delivered over $1 million in grants since the program began in 2013. 

Credit: AMDA Foundation Limited

Turning Conversations into Momentum

What consistently sets Indo Pacific apart is the combination of scale and accessibility. You can move from a keynote on maritime strategy directly into a conversation with an engineer fine-tuning an unmanned surface vessel; from a meeting with a foreign delegation to watching a start-up founder pitch their life’s work in three minutes flat. 

It’s this mix that keeps the event feeling grounded despite its size. Serious topics delivered in a setting where people still talk shop over coffee, swap lessons from the field, and walk away with new contacts they’ll actually use. 

As promised, Indo Pacific 2025 delivered another a premier engagement platform for Australia and the region’s maritime defence community.

Looking Ahead to Indo Pacific 2027

With the success of this year still fresh, organisers have confirmed that Indo Pacific 2027 will return to ICC Sydney from 2–4 November 2027. Planning is already underway for what will be the 15th instalment of the series, again backed by the Royal Australian Navy and supported by the NSW Government through Investment NSW. 

If this year’s momentum is any indication, the 2027 event is set to be another essential meeting point for defence, industry, government and research communities—one that continues to reflect both Australia’s maritime priorities and the region’s wider strategic currents. 

Credit: AMDA Foundation Limited

More information are available at www.indopacificexpo.com.au.