Australia defence budget: $270b earmarked on new weapons, fleets, troops

The PM has announced billions will be spent on new hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and missile shields to keep intruders away from our waters.

Australia will ramp up defence spending to $270 billion over the next decade as the country prepares for a “post-COVID world that is poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly,” the Prime Minister said this afternoon.

Around $90bn of that will be spent on advanced new kit, including “hypersonic” weapons, fighter jets and a cyber warfare capability. Australia will also put its own spy satellites in space.

It’s a ballsy move designed to project Australia’s military might, show it can hit back if provoked and give it more muscle on the world stage.

But Mr Morrison thinks it’s necessary, telling the Australian Defence Force Academy today that, “the Indo-Pacific is the epicentre of rising strategic competition.”

“We have seen recently on the disputed border between India and China, in the South China Sea, and in the East China Sea.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces today that the Government will invest $270 billion over the next 10 years to upgrade the capability and potency of the Australian Defence Force. Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO

China is extending its influence into Pacific areas where Australia, New Zealand and the US have long been the pre-eminent powers.

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The aim is for Australia to not only to guard its patch of the Pacific but also fend off cyber-attacks and warfare. The budget boost will see the ADF grow by 800 personnel.

“The Indo-Pacific is where we live. We want an open, sovereign Indo-Pacific, free from coercion and hegemony, Mr Morrison said.

Just as relations have deteriorated with China, so Australia’s has been increasing its military links to India and other nations on our side of the world.

In the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and the new Force Structure Plan, released by Scott Morrison today, he announced defence spending would hit at least 2 per cent of gross domestic product in the 2020/21 financial year. The government will give Defence $270 billion over the next decade – up from the $195 billion promised in 2016.

The PM said Australia needed stronger deterrence capabilities to “influence their calculus of costs involved in threatening Australian interests”.

“The simple truth is this: even as we stare down the COVID pandemic at home, we need to also prepare for a post-COVID world that is poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly,” he said.

Australian authorities have raised recent concerns over cyber-attacks from China and Russia, terror cells throughout the Indo-Pacific and the shifting regional power balance between China and the US.

NEW WEAPONS, SATELLITES AND JETS

Defence will get lots of cash to spend on fancy new technology.

The first cash splash is almost modest compared to what is also on the cards, with the ADF to get the US built AGM-158C long range anti-ship missiles, at a cost of $800 million.

AGM-158C long range anti-ship missiles which Australia is buying $800 million worth of.

Australia then intends to spend $10bn to jump on the hypersonic bandwagon – the must have missile of the 2020s.

These hypersonic weapons, if they can be made to work, have two major benefits. Firstly, they are incredibly fast and can head towards the enemy at speeds of greater than Mach 5. Secondly, they can duck and weave in an effort to evade enemy defences.

That’s in contrast to current long-range missiles that follow a predictable arc as they head towards their target.

These could be used to protect critical shipping lanes that Australia depends upon. For instance, 90 per cent of the oil Australia uses is imported and much of that passes through Singapore.

A hypersonic missile built by Boeing. Picture: US air force

Chinese People's Liberation Army concept art showing hypersonic projectiles falling among a US carrier battlegroup.

Defence is also looking at the MGM-140 rocket artillery missile system and an anti-ballistic missile defence shield for troops in the field.

Around $6bn has been pencilled in for anti-submarine weapons and underwater surveillance technology.

$7bn will be shot into space. Defence wants more Australian satellites so it can keep an eye on what’s happening below and in space as well as aiding in critical communications. This will also include ground-based signals intelligence facilities.

Currently, Defence has a share in some commercial satellites but it’s keen to have full control.

A unmanned drone – Australia will have few more of those thank you. Picture: Ayman Henna / AFP.

A further $70bn will be used to increase the firepower of the army including drones and rockets.

Extra to this, $180bn will spent on upgrading Army and navy fleets.

The new Force Structure Plan also calls for advanced air-warfare capacity and combat drones.

Bolstering Australia’s arsenal, Mr Morrison said, should lead expansionist enemies to think twice.

“The ADF now needs stronger deterrence capabilities. Capabilities that can hold potential adversaries‘ forces and critical infrastructure at risk from a distance, thereby deterring an attack on Australia and helping to prevent war.”