Company Profile

Nioa Defence is Australia's leading privately owned small arms supplier with access to extensive international resources and capabilities.

Introduction

Nioa Defence is a specialist business unit of Nioa, a company established more than a quarter of a century ago and now Australia's largest privately-owned supplier of small arms to the commercial, law enforcement and military markets.

The incumbent commercial supplier of MK19 Automatic Grenade Launchers to the Australian Department of Defence and sole supporter of the nations fleet of over 40,000 Glock Law Enforcement agency side arms, Nioa Defence represents over fifty international companies including General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products USA, Rheinmetall Defence Germany, Accuracy International UK, several divisions of ATK USA, Bushmaster USA and Glock Austria.

The company carries ISO9001 accreditation for the marketing, importation, distribution, integration, and through-life support, including management of procurement and supply contracts for firearms, weapons systems, ammunition and related products for the Commercial, Law Enforcement and Military markets.

Nioa Defence draws on over 25 years of experience distributing product to the Australian market

In The Beginning

Established in 1979 to support the commercial Australian shooting industry, Nioa grew to service the Australian Law Enforcement and Military markets and is headed by second generation family member and Managing Director, Robert Nioa. The company has an enviable track record of successfully delivering tens of thousands of small arms and many tens of millions of rounds of ammunition to hundreds of satisfied customers in the private and Government sectors.

The company established Nioa Defence as a specialist business unit in acknowledgement of the importance of the Law Enforcement and Military business sectors. Patrick Whitty left his position as acting General Manager of ADI (Thales) Land Ordnance Division to head the new Nioa Defence business unit.

A 23-year defence industry veteran, Patrick has considerable experience in ammunition, explosives, weapons manufacture and through-life support, as well as Department of Defence bid preparation and contract management expertise.  Patrick has worked in various roles within the Australian Strategic Defence manufacturing environment, including a position with the Department of Defence Explosives Factory where he worked in product development, capital facilities project management and production.  He was also seconded to the US Navy in Virginia for a period of time to assist with the development of a continuous high explosive production process. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) and a Masters of Management (Technology).

Headquartered in Brisbane and employing thirty full time staff, the company has offices in Melbourne and Canberra, close to strategic defence procurement and policy development groups.

Nioa Defence has access to extensive capabilities with leading international partners

Australian Portal

Nioa Defence is a strong and reliable Australian portal to some of the world’s biggest and most innovative defence companies. With our annual sales approaching $30m, we draw on the strength of over one hundred thousand employees in companies based in 18 countries, with combined annual sales approaching $15 billion.

Our partners' resources cover the functional spectrum of research and development, project management, manufacture, logistics, planning, finance, quality management, marketing and legal.  Their extensive capabilities are focussed in the following diverse business segments, in which they lead the world:

  • Conventional and advanced weapon systems and ammunition for Air, Land and Sea including small arms, crew served, medium and large calibre 
  • Less lethal force protection products 
  • Hypervelocity and air-breathing propulsion systems for next-generation space vehicles and weapons 
  • Rocket motors and warheads 
  • Electro optics products 
  • Countermeasure systems for use against sensor-guided weapons. 
  • Non-lethal systems such as medium-energy lasers and high-performance microwave weapons. 
  • High-performance armament systems 
  • High performance composite products for the aerospace industry 
  • Biological and chemical detection systems 
  • Advanced sensor and vision-enhancement systems

Nioa Defence is at the apex of a potent international defence network.  It is these resources that we draw upon to provide exceptional technical and product support for our Australian government supply contracts and projects.

Nioa Defence is based in a state of the art, secure distribution facility built to custom specifications

A Secure Facility

The multi-million dollar Brisbane headquarters and distribution centre sets the standard for secure weapons storage and logistics in Australia. The facility’s physical, electronic and surveillance security is extensive, employing a multi-layered planned redundancy approach. Housed within the facility is Australia’s largest secure private armoury. Custom designed and constructed, the armoury significantly exceeds Australian Department of Defence specifications.

A flexible format training room and small arms test fire facility supports a wide variety of training opportunities. Nioa has the capacity to support large class sizes for armourer or operator training for various weapon systems, and can cater for up to 150 people in classroom format. Training at customer locations is also available and routinely provided.

Nioa Defence has extensive Government contract experience with varied partners and products

Government Contract Experience

Nioa has successfully secured and managed a wide variety of Australian Government contracts in the military and law enforcement sectors, including:

  • MK19 40mm AGL's to the Australian Department of Defence for Operation Enduring Freedom. 
  • MK47 MOD0 ALGL's to the Australian Department of Defence for Land 40-2 Light Weight Automatic Grenade Launcher evaluation program.
  • Federal Attorney General's Department Protective Security Coordination Centre primary entry carbine, ancillary equipment and national logistics.
  • 70mm rockets for the AIR87 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter program
  • Glock semi-automatic side-arms for most Australia law enforcement agencies and selected  Australian Department of Defence groups
  • Federal ATK small arms ammunition for operational and training use by the Australian Defence Forces and national and state law enforcement agencies
  • Low and high velocity Rheinmetall 40mm ammunition for the Australian Defence Forces and national and state law enforcement agencies
  • Rheinmetall stun and distraction devices for the Australian Defence Forces and national and state law enforcement agencies
  • Customised communication headsets for the Australian Special Operations Command for use in Blackhawk helicopters
  • Combat identification equipment in support of Land 146 CID
  • Customised hearing protection systems for the Medical Systems Program Office

Nioa is also involved in the following Australian Defence Force capability development programs:

  • Land 40-2 Lightweight Automatic Grenade Launcher 
  • Land 125 Enhanced Hearing Protection
  • Land 125 Enhanced Lethality Sub-System
  • Abrams Reactive Armour Tiles (ARAT) for the Replacement Tank program
  • Land 91-6 Small Arms Life-Of-Type-Extension
  • Land 53-1B/R Night Vision Equipment program
  • Land 132 Raising 4RAR to Commando Regiment

Nioa Defence is dedicated to supporting Australians

Supporting Australians

Since inception, the company has carried significant small arms spare parts stock to support commercial and Government requirements in Australia. Over 10,000 spare part SKU’s are housed or supported through the Nioa spare parts inventory system. This is possibly the most comprehensive small arms support system of its kind in Australia.

Nioa Defence Head Armourer and Sales Manager, Greg Toms, leads the company’s hands-on involvement in Government weapon system through-life support.  Greg carries numerous factory endorsements including full armourer, operator and system integration technical certification by General Dynamics Armament and Technical products for the MK47 MOD0 Advanced Lightweight Grenade Launcher (MK47 MOD0 ALGL). He has built an unmatched reputation with Government customers for exceptional technical support.

Nioa Defence support capabilities cover physical weapon repair, design, customisation, scheduled servicing, through-life upgrades, integration, de-integration, warranty assessment, operator training, armourer training, technical data transfer and management, configuration management, field support, international support, logistics management and secure transport and storage. 

Full List of Nioa Defence Agencies:

911EP Accuracy International Aearo Technologies
A.R.M.S. Inc ATK / Federal Bushmaster
Concept Development Corporation Docter Optics DRS Night Vision Systems
FOX Cutlery General Dynamics Armament & Technical Products Glock
Harris Bipods H-S Precision L3 EOTech
Laser Devices Inc Northern Lights Tactical Ontario Knives
Optical Systems Technology Inc Patriot 3 Penn Arms
SOG Specialty Knives Rheinmetall Defence Stinger Systems Inc
US Ordnance Inc Watchguard