A major government review of Australia’s military readiness has recommended sweeping changes to the defense forces, as the country adjusts to a rapidly changing strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific region.
(Bloomberg) — A major government review of Australia’s military readiness has recommended sweeping changes to the defense forces, as the country adjusts to a rapidly changing strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific region.
Australia’s military is not “fit for purpose” as it currently stands, the Defence Strategic Review released in Canberra Monday found. It recommended the government reprioritize spending toward purchasing long-range missiles and military drones, while boosting domestic defense manufacturing.
“This is a watershed moment for defense policy in our country’s history,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said at a news conference after the release. “What it will provide for is an Australian Defence Force befitting of a much more confident and self-reliant nation.”
Conducted by a former foreign minister and defense chief, the review found Australia faces a “radically different” strategic environment including a military build-up by China that is “the largest and most ambitious” by any country World War II. All this is happening as the US, for 80 years the dominant regional player, is no longer the “unipolar leader of the Indo-Pacific.”
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Monday at a regular press briefing in Beijing that her nation hoped “some countries do not use China as an excuse to expand their military capabilities and hype up China threat, which is groundless.”
Australia’s center-left Labor government ordered the review of defense strategy and military spending shortly after coming to power in May 2022. It was prompted in part by concerns over lengthy delays in procuring new vehicles and weaponry and a rapidly evolving security environment.
Marles said the overhaul means recasting the mission of Australia’s defense forces for the first time in 35 years.
The military will now have five primary goals:
- To defend Australia and its immediate region
- To deter through denial any adversary that seeks to project power against Australia or its interests through the northern approaches
- To protect Australia’s economic connections to the region and world
- With partners, to provide for collective security of the Indo-Pacific
- To provide the maintenance of the global rules based order.
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The cost of implementing the review is estimated at A$19 billion ($12.7 billion) over the forward estimates, with a large amount of the cost already factored into the defense budget.
The review recommended a shift away from conventional areas like land-based troop carriers and toward missile and drone warfare.
As a result of the changes, Australia’s army will extend the range of its weapons from just 40 kilometers (25 miles) at present to a new initial maximum missile range of 300 kilometers, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said. With the acquisition of precision strike missiles, the range could be in excess of 500 kilometers.
“This is about giving the Australian Army the firepower and mobility it needs,” he said.
Hugh White, emeritus professor of Strategic Studies at Australian National University, said while he admired the “sense of urgency” in the review, he estimates the military will need substantially more investment to properly implement the recommendations. He also also questioned whether there was sufficient clarity in the strategic goals.
“It’s not clear whether or not our priority is really to support the US in maintaining a balance of power in Asia, or to defend Australia and its northern approaches,” White said.
(Updates with comment from China’s Foreign Ministry.)
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