Push to base long-range, anti-ship missiles at RAAF Base Tindal after PM’s $270bn Defence cash splash
UPDATE: A LEADING Australian defence analyst is pushing for long-range anti-ship missiles to be based at RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
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- $1.1bn in projects at Tindal base set to take off
- Territory defence upgrades ‘may bring us closer to war’
UPDATE: A LEADING Australian defence analyst is pushing for long-range anti-ship missiles to be based at RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory.
Prime Minister announced a $270 billion cash splash today on long-range maritime missiles and land strike capabilities as tensions with China intensify.
The program includes major upgrades to RAAF Base Tindal which the PM has previously described as “the sharp end of the spear” for Australian and US air operations in the Indo-Pacific.
Former deputy defence department secretary Paul Dibb said the acquisition of land-based missiles would give Australia a credible long-range strike capability.
“I would support the basing of long-range air-launched anti-ship missiles in Tindal,” he said.
It comes after the PM announced a $1.1 billion upgrade to the Royal Australian Air Force base at Tindal in February.
“Our region will not only shape our future – increasingly it is the focus of the dominant global contest of our age,’’ Mr Morrison says.
“Tensions over territorial claims are rising across the Indo-Pacific region – as we have seen recently on the disputed border between India and China, in the South China Sea, and in the East China Sea.”
The Prime Minister will warn the Indo-Pacific is the epicentre of rising strategic competition, signalling a shift in Australia’s defence focus.
ANU Professor Paul Dibbs has previously flagged the $1.1 billion upgrade to the RAAF base at Tindal as pivotal, because it will lengthen the runway so that US B-52 strategic bombers as well as our own KC-30 air-to-air refuelling aircraft can operate from there.
“The second development is the announcement by the US State Department that Australia has been cleared, at a cost of about $1.4 billion, to purchase 200 AGM-158C long-range anti-ship missiles (LRASM), which can be fired from our F/A-18 Super Hornets and the F-35s when they are delivered,’’ Professor Dibb wrote.
“The significance of these two developments occurring at the same time should not be underestimated and certainly not in Beijing. Morrison described the upgrades to Tindal as being ‘the sharp end of the spear’ for Australian and US air operations in the Indo-Pacific. As ASPI’s Peter Jennings observed, the decision to expand the Tindal air base is a giant strategic step forward and could be the basis for a greater leadership role for Australia in the region.
“When the upgrade, including major runway extensions, fuel stockpiles and engineering support, is completed, Tindal will be the most potent military base south of Guam. And — for the time being at least — it is beyond the reach of Chinese conventional ballistic missiles.”
The new defence blueprint will also increase the Australian Defence Force’s ability to influence and deny operations in the ‘grey-zone’ of intelligence and offensive cyber capabilities.
“Disinformation and foreign interference have been enabled by new and emerging technologies,’’ the Prime Minister says.
“Relations between China and the United States are fractious as they compete for political, economic and technological supremacy.”
However, the Prime Minister will warn it is important to acknowledge that China and the US are not the only actors of consequence.
“Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, the countries of Southeast Asia, and the Pacific all have agency – choices to make and parts to play,’’ he says.
“We must be alert to the full range of current and future threats, including ones in which Australia’s security and sovereignty may be tested.
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“We know what we’re about and what we stand for.
“We’re about having the freedom to live our lives as we choose — in an open and democratic society, without coercion or fear.
“We won’t surrender this – ever.”
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