Defence budget blow sees Australian army set to lose tanks and cannons

A blow out in defence pledges and the evolving face of warfare will see the Army lose armoured combat vehicles and cannons.

The Australian Army is set to lose three battalions of combat vehicles and a column of Howitzer cannons under recommendations in the blueprint for the future of the nation’s defence.

The government will formally release the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) – the most important military manifesto since the 1987 White Paper – next Monday.

But in an early draft it has been revealed Defence’s Budget forward estimates was over heated by a whopping 24 per cent, meaning many of the capability fighting tools pledged under the previous government cannot be delivered.

Australian Army Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Hanwha Defense Australia Redback (left) and the Rheinmetall Defence Australia KF-41 Lynx, stand ready to board HMAS Adelaide at HMAS Kuttabul, NSW for sea transportability trials.

The Army appears to be the big first losers from the DSR report with less land-based combat vehicles, with savings going towards more long-range missiles instead.

Army had been expecting to get 450 next generation Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) but the independently led DSR has recommended it now only get 129, less than a third.

This will come as a shock to both the South Korean Hanwha defence manufacturer giant and its German rival Rheinmetall, both of which established factories in Australia in anticipation for an expected $27bn order.

Australian Army soldiers from 8/12 Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, 102nd (Coral) Battery fire the M777A2 Howitzer during Exercise Predators Run at Mount Bundey Training Area, NT.

Army was to also get a second regiment of self-propelled Howitzer cannons – much vaunted by the previous Morrison government – but the DSR team has told the government now that “should be immediately cancelled”.

The DSR was authored by former ADF chief Sir Angus Houston and former Labor Defence Minister, now our top diplomat to the United Kingdom, Stephen Smith.

They concluded new capability requirements coupled with sustainment demand for existing capabilities and the need to address “severe workforce pressures will require difficult decisions and trade-offs to manage the Defence Budget over the immediate period”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles would not comment on the DSR ahead of its release but has previously accused the Coalition of a making “announcements with hoopla” including to the Top Gun theme song but with no money behind it.

It is understood the recommendations to cut back on Army kit was based partly on a blow out in overall Defence Budget acquisition pledges not properly costed by the previous government and analysis of conflict today – notably the Ukraine-Russia war – with land-based battles on Australian soil less likely.

Avalon Airshow. News pic, plus gallery including 20 people with names. HIMARS rocket artillery system Picture Mark Wilson

A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) during a live fire exercise. Picture: Getty

That has meant a greater emphasis on more likely long-range missile conflict scenarios, like in Ukraine. The DSR has concluded it was in urgent need for Defence to now spend big for long-range “impactful projection”.

Between the Coalition government’s 2020 strategic defence review and a restructure plan released about three weeks later, measures were announced amounting to more than $42 billion worth of spending for over the next decade without provision of any extra moneys allocated in the Budget. This included an allocation to secure the supply of guided weapons and explosive ordinance and the second pillar of the AUKUS security pact.

The Coalition also pledged an uplift of 18,500 personnel troops but only put aside enough money for 12,500 troops.

The first image of the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, after the vessel was hit by at least one Ukrainian anti-ship missile, as claimed by the Kyiv government.

That has left Defence planners needing to now make urgent “trade-offs” to manage the current Defence budget.

It is understood what the DSR has recommended instead is an acceleration to acquire land-based maritime strike capabilities – such as used by Ukraine to sink Russia’s flagship Moskva; Australia has not had such a land-based capability since World War 2.

According to the DSR, Defence is also likely to get more, lots more, long range HIMARS multi-rocket launchers from the United States under the already existing Land 8113 program.

The program to acquire littoral manoeuvre vessels – Army amphibious vessels designed for rapid deployment of troops and tanks – should also be “accelerated and expanded” according to DSR recommendations.