Trump an opportunity for defence industry

There's a "new broom sweeping Washington DC" and Christopher Pyne is confident Australian businesses can clean up from the Trump administration's plan to increase military spending.

The defence industry minister is off to the US in early April and hopes to meet Secretary of Defense James Mattis to discuss the F35 Joint Strike Fighter jet program and spruik Australian defence industry wares.

President Donald Trump has proposed a $US54 billion ($A71 billion) hike in defence spending, which equates to a 10 per cent boost.

"This presents an opportunity for us," Mr Pyne told the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.

"We have a very high standing in the United States in terms of our quality and capability in terms of what we can provide."

He singled out the Nulka anti-ship missile decoy, a billion-dollar Australian export, and how it had helped protect the American naval ship USS Mason off the coast of Yemen last October when it was attacked by missile strikes.

Mr Pyne will also travel to Canada in April and will use the trip to promote the Australian CEA phased array radar which he said was the best in the world.

"The United States use it, we use it and the Canadians should be using it in their frigates," he said, adding that Canada was looking to buy 12 anti-submarine warfare frigates with the option for a further three.

Mr Pyne also reflected on the acceleration of strategic changes around the world - a more assertive Russia and China, a British exit from the European Union, North Korea's highly dangerous nuclear and missile brinkmanship, and "a new broom sweeping through in Washington DC".

"These developments put a premium on the need for Australia to be able to act for itself, and make national security decisions that maximise our strengths at a time of unprecedented global strategic change," he said.

Australia was rethinking how its relationship with the US would work.

"President Trump is not business as usual," Mr Pyne said.