Australia allocates $7 billion amid ‘arms race’

The Albana government is spending billions of dollars to modernize Australia’s missile defenses, with the defense industry minister warning the country is in a major regional “arms race”.

Pat Conroy unveiled the $7 billion commitment in Washington on Monday evening (local time).

Under the terms of the deal, the Royal Australian Navy will be equipped with US-made SM-2 IIIC and SM-6 missiles.

Mr Conroy said the missiles would significantly improve the lethality of the Australian navy.

“Australia faces its most contentious geostrategic situation since the Second World War,” he told reporters.

“This is a $7 billion investment in protecting Australia from modern and evolving missile threats.”

He went on to say that these are not only “modern long-range missiles” but also “the best air defense missiles in the world.”

The high-tech surface-to-air missiles are used almost exclusively by the US, and HMAS Sydney made history in August as the first non-US Navy ship to fire the SM-6.

The sale has already received the approval of American politicians.

“We are living in the biggest arms race in our region since 1945, with a high degree of strategic uncertainty,” Mr. Conroy told reporters.

“You just have to look at the lessons of the Ukrainian conflict to understand the importance of air defense and the ability to defend against missile threats.”

He said that many countries “in our region are investing in anti-ship missiles and investing in the aircraft to deliver them” and that “these missiles are designed to defeat them.”

The minister did not specify a timeline but said the new missiles would be “progressively deployed” on the Navy’s Hobart-class destroyers.

The move represents Canberra’s latest response to China’s growing assertiveness in the Pacific.

Beijing is investing in an arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles.

Late last month, the Chinese military also tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, a conventional nuclear warhead delivery system.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Simon Birmingham says the government’s defense announcement is “welcome” but questions how “quickly” it can be made. The Federal Government has announced it will spend $7 billion over the next decade to buy medium- and long-range missiles for the Australian Navy from the US. “The announcement itself is welcome,” Mr Birmingham told Sky News Australia. “But we are calling for faster, bigger and more decisive action. “The military budget has simply not been adjusted by the Albana government in terms of additional investment to keep up with the rhetoric and talk. “It’s not the announcement that’s important; it’s how quickly they can be delivered.”

Reacting to the missile deal, the opposition foreign affairs spokesman said “the achievement of greater lethality, capability and longer-range capability is very welcome.”

However, he stopped short of praising the government.

“There are things that the Coalition has been saying throughout this parliamentary term, but we have been calling for faster, bigger and more decisive action,” Senator Birmingham told Sky News.

“The military budget has simply not been adjusted by the Albana government in terms of additional investment to keep up with the rhetoric and talk.

“And with regard to these commitments and this announcement, it is not the announcement itself that matters.

“What’s important is how quickly they can be delivered and installed and gives us that capability.”