Minister eyes being major arms exporter

Australia has the potential to become a major arms exporter, a senior federal government minister believes.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has his sights set on putting the nation on the map when it comes to building defence capabilities.

Australia had the capacity to export weapons such as targets, vessels and surveillance systems and some of that has already begun.

"My ambition is for us to enormously increase that capacity to send a lot more weapons overseas to appropriate countries," Mr Pyne told ABC radio on Monday.

But it won't happen "willy-nilly".

"I believe we can, over the course of the next few decades, create jobs and investment here in Australia by being a major weapons exporter."

Mr Pyne said the nation had to overcome a 'we can't do it here' response.

"We can do it here," he said, talking up the country's manufacturing and exporting talents.