On October 8-10, 2019, MAI’s Vice President of Virginia Operations, Steve Psaras, attended the Pacific International Maritime Exposition 2019 in Sydney, Australia. He met with over 24 U.S. and Australian-based companies for potential overseas services export and collaboration associated with the Royal Australian Navy’s recent upgrade initiatives in submarine/surface SONAR and testing range activities. Pacific 2019, which is held every 2-years, is the largest maritime defense forum in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The event includes hundreds of exhibitors in the Australian Maritime Defense Industry, as well as dozens of Naval representatives in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. MAI was one of 27 countries exhibiting in the U.S. Partnership Pavilion and was featured in the following news article associated with the expo.

“It is important for U.S. government and industry to have a unified presence at Pacific 2019 due to the enormous geostrategic maritime, economic and military importance of the region,” said Steve Psaras, Vice President of Virginia Operations at Marine Acoustics, a first-time Pacific Expo exhibitor. “This show provides a forum where we can all work together with our allied counterparts toward mutual national security and defense interests, leveraging regional expertise for the most efficient cooperation.”

MAI’s participation was sponsored by the Virginia Export Development Program (VEDP), a program developed by the Commonwealth of Virginia to encourage international export activity for small Virginia-based companies, under their Global Defense Program (GDP). GDP provides a stipend for conference attendance and export compliance activity, along with a travel grant under the Small Business Association’s (SBA’s) State Trade Expansion Program (STEP).