Defence maps reveal China’s land based missiles could hit two-thirds of Australia

Top secret Defence maps reveal China’s growing land based missile arsenal could hit targets across two thirds of Australia confirming our geography is no longer a natural defence.

A missile fired during a Chinese military exercise on August 4, 2022 – China’s largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan as a show of might. Picture: AFP/PLA Eastern Theater Command

Classified Defence maps reveal China’s growing land based missile arsenal could hit targets across two thirds of Australia.

The classified discussion paper which “war-games” the missile threat features a diagram with a “ring range” or arc showing a 3000 km – 5000km range possible from a land-based assault of DF-26 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) from China’s Hainan Island military stronghold.

That takes out the top of the country including Darwin’s defence precinct, RAAF Tindal and RAAF Learmouth and the critical Naval Communications Station Harold E. Holt.

But it’s a second map is more concerning for some in Defence circles, detailing a missile launch assault over Australia from China’s fully militarised three man-made atolls in the South China Sea particularly Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, several hundred kilometres closer to us.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) holds a missile fire drill in the Taiwan Strait. Picture: Eastern Theatre Command

From here the missile arc range takes in most of Western Australia, including Fleet Base West and the country’s busiest air base RAAF Pearce, all of the NT, as far north east as Townsville and south western parts of South Australia.

Our geography is no longer a natural defence.

This sort of war gaming is what determined Australia’s urgent need for what last year was tagged “impactful projection”, described in new Australian Defence Force (ADF) doctrine as holding an adversary at bay at a longer distance rather than just protecting the continent.

The AUKUS deal and its nuclear-powered submarines this week has gone some way to introducing this.

The ADF had long moved away from the image that defending Australia was about the camouflage-paint faced warrior on Australia’s mythical frontline.

Many of today’s military defenders are instead computer sharp, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)-trained operators behind sophisticated tech including over-the-horizon radar systems, artificial intelligence and quantum tech in drones being flown remotely from thousands of kilometres away. Or they are the cyber offensive and counter offensive personnel from all fronts including space, combating already the “grey war” assault on the country.

Many of today’s military defenders are instead computer sharp, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)-trained operators behind sophisticated tech. Picture: ADF

But the AUKUS program – including its submarines’ most powerful and secret piece of military kit in the world: its shoebox sized nuclear reactor, will hyper-accelerate technology acquisitions and the type of personnel that will forever change the new face of Australia’s defence.

ADF General Angus Campbell said: “It (the submarines) is long range, high speed and creates uncertainty in the minds of Australia’s potential adversaries.”

Are we ready to enter a war today? Security analysts are in agreement that the answer is no.

China’s military alone is expanding at such a rapid rate it will have 70 nuclear-powered submarines in the water by the early 2040s when we are expecting to get our first second-hand Virginia class sub from the US.

ADF General Angus Campbell says China will have 70 nuclear-powered submarines in the water by the early 2040s. Picture: Evan Morgan

But the evolution of our defence forces has begun. Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst and former Defence Department strategist Dr Malcolm Davis said in terms of weaponry, directed-energy weapons like lasers or particle beams, and microwave devices, were emerging.

“We are just getting started in this military revolutionary period where quantum artificial intelligence, robotics, hypersonic and directed energy weapons, space capabilities all these areas are coming together to radically change how we think about warfare,” he said. He said warfare was becoming more lethal but also more precision less indiscriminate.

If the nature of warfare is changing, then so does nature of personnel who are becoming increasingly much more technical specialists to work on equipment but not necessarily having to have a PhD or Masters.

Australian National University professor of international security and intelligence and defence studies Professor John Blaxland, said Australia’s secret weapon was also its relationships with our Pacific and South East Asia neighbours. But he said these relationships “are undercooked, (though) there’s still a remarkable level of residual good will.”

WHY AUKUS IS A GAME CHANGER

RAN Vice Admiral Jonathon Mead was on a study trip to the United States as he prepared to brief Australia on the biggest and most complex national security capability uplift in our history.

The deeply-experienced officer, former commander of the Australian fleet and chief of joint capabilities was tasked with leading the AUKUS Nuclear Powered Submarine Task Force and figuring out how Australia could do this.

There was all the heavy technicalities and logistics around the deal but the niggle remained how the ADF could so significantly expand the workforce to do it.

One of the key stumbling blocks to making AUKUS feasible was how the ADF could significantly expand the workforce to do it. Picture: ADF

He was at a training institution and almost all junior US officers speaking introduced themselves and added “and I have worked on the nuclear power program for 10 years”.

“I asked why they were working in this area for so long and one leading seaman replied ‘because we are so excited to be dealing with the most advanced capability on the planet’, they were just excited by the level of technology, modern reactors, that was it, that was the drawcard” Mead recalled yesterday.

He added that did not just mean having personnel just trained as nuclear scientists, analysts and physicists but a myriad of other professions from legal and psychological to software and desk bound combat systems operators that will be needed in supporting the nuclear-powered program.

Just another reason why it is considered a game changer for the ADF.

Originally published as Defence maps reveal China’s land based missiles could hit two-thirds of Australia