Australia is set to manufacture and export missiles to the United States, and possibly other countries too, within two years.
The plans to ramp up defence cooperation to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific, were announce on Saturday following the high level Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations in Brisbane.
The new cooperation on guided weapon production follows a trilateral partnership announcement in March that will see Britain provide Australia with a fleet of eight submarines powered by US nuclear technology.
The greater integration of US and Australian militaries was announced after annual talks between US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Australian counterparts, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
They agreed to cooperate on Australia producing Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems by 2025, a communique said.
US companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin only established an Australian enterprise to build such weapons last year. That followed the drain on Western countries’ munitions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The US government is believed to be allocating $4 billion for the missile manufacturing, which will use American designs.
Austin said the move on missiles would strengthen the two allies’ defense industrial base and technological edge.
“We’re racing to accelerate Australia’s priority access to munitions through a streamlined acquisition process,” Austin told reporters.
Marles welcomed US support to achieve Australian missile production within two years.
“We are really pleased with the steps that we are taking in respect of establishing a guided weapons and explosive ordnance enterprise in this country,” Marles said.
The two governments also agreed to upgrade joint military facilities in Australia and to increase US nuclear submarine visits as the United States increases its focus on the South Pacific.
Economic security program director at US Studies Centre Hayley Channer told Weekend Today the US would licence the intellectual property but it would be manufactured in Australia.
“This is a really big development but it kind of continues the trajectory of us needing to work together more because of things like what’s happening in Ukraine,” Channer said.
Officials from both countries are downplaying concerns the AUKUS pact could be derailed in the US Congress, after 23 Senate Republicans said they would not support the proposal.
Channer said she was really hoping to see progress and all three countries could make AUKUS a reality.
She admitted the missile production had a lot to do with China’s rise in the Pacific.
“If China wasn’t doing what it was doing in the South China Sea, if it wasn’t intercepting ships in the dangerous way that it was and if it wasn’t also doing things in the economic space to coerce Australia… we wouldn’t be so concerned about China’s rise.
“But because China is investing extremely heavily in its military… We are really concerned about China changing the status quo and destabilising what has been a stable region for decades.”
She said China now had a military larger than the US.
Source : 9News
