Australia declares biggest navy plan since WWII
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Australia's new defense plan will elevate its defense spending to 2.4 percent of the gross domestic product.
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Vessels participating in Exercise Malabar 2023, the INS Sahyadri, JS Shiranui, INS Kolkata, and HMAS Brisbane, sail into Sydney Harbour on Friday, August 11, 2023. (AP)
Australia set today a decade-long plan to double its fleet of surface combatant ships from 11 to 26 and enhance defense spending by an additional $7 billion amid the fast-paced Asia-Pacific arms race.
Defense Minister Richard Marles stated, "It is the largest fleet that we will have since the end of the Second World War."
The country will get six Hunter class frigates, 11 general-purpose frigates, three air warfare destroyers, and six state-of-the-art surface warships that do not need any crew members. At least some of the fleet will be armed with Tomahawk missiles with a major detrimental capability for long-range strikes on targets deep inside enemy territory.
This means that the two percent target for defense spending set by the NATO allies will be exceeded by Australia, as this plan will elevate its spending to 2.4 percent of the gross domestic product.
More than 3,000 jobs will be created, as some of the ships will be constructed in Adelaide, while other ships will be provided from US designs and a still undecided design to come from Spain, Germany, South Korea, or Japan.
Promises are not enough
Michael Shoebridge, a former senior security official and now independent analyst, advised the government to conquer past errors as it had "no more time to waste" for competition in the region is increasing.
He further called for a well-planned procurement process, as otherwise, it will be a "familiar path that leads to delays, construction troubles, cost blowouts -- and at the end, ships that get into service too late with systems that are overtaken by events and technological change," adding that the promise of "continuous naval shipbuilding" cannot be the priority.
"This will just get in the way of the actual priority: reversing the collapse of our Navy's fleet," he added.
Back in December
On December 3, US Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu stated that the Defense Department intends to hold joint hypersonic missile tests with the Australian military in 2024.
"We're already in the process of working very closely with them [the Australian Defense Department] to figure out how do we integrate some of our [Hypersonics] experimentations in Australia," the DefenseNews website cited her.
Shyu added that the nations amped up their partnership in hypersonic technologies for the past year, and announced that the tests will be conducted this year. Part of the second stage of cooperation in the AUKUS partnership is technology, which includes quantum computing, autonomy, and electronic warfare research.
