Strengthening our defences amid strategic challenges

Defence Minister Peter Dutton, showing commendable strategic foresight, has flagged broadening participation in Australia’s biggest war games with the US, Exercise Talisman Sabre, to include India in two years’ time.

In an exclusive interview with foreign affairs and defence correspondent Ben Packham aboard HMAS Canberra during Talisman Sabre 2021, Mr Dutton said the participation of Japan, which like India is a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, had been a highlight of this year’s exercise off the Queensland coast. The inclusion of India, which invited Australia to its Malabar naval exercise with the US and Japan last year, would further elevate Talisman Sabre’s strategic significance. The inclusion of India in the biennial exercise would probably infuriate China. Its state-run media described Australia’s participation in Malabar as an unwelcome step towards the creation of an “Asian version of NATO”.

About 17,000 personnel from seven nations – Australia, the US, the UK, Japan, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand – are participating in Talisman Sabre 2021, with 18 ships, 70 fixed-wing aircraft and 50 helicopters. The size and importance of the exercise, at a time of increasing concern about Chinese aggression in the region, has also drawn attention to the nation’s defence preparedness and delays on vital projects.

On Saturday, associate editor Cameron Stewart reported that a frustrated Mr Dutton, providing the leadership the portfolio has long needed, has ­delivered a blunt message to all prime contractors for the nation’s $45bn frigate project and the $90bn submarine project, saying Australia cannot allow these crucial developments to drift at a time of growing strategic uncertainty. The minister also publicly confirmed for the first time that construction of the first of the new British-made Hunter-class frigates had been pushed back by up to 18 months due to delays in the development of Britain’s Type 26 frigate, on which the Australian ship design is based. The delays with the Type 26 frigates, which are not yet in service in Britain, centre on design and weight problems, and Covid-related lockdowns in Britain. The frigates will be modified to fit a US combat system and Australian radar, but these changes are not the cause of the delay. The cost of the frigate project has also been adjusted up, from $35bn to $45bn.

As Stewart noted, Australian naval shipbuilding has a troubled tradition — think the Collins-class submarines and the recent air warfare destroyers — of bungling projects early on, yet ultimately delivering a capable product, even if it is late and over budget. The Collins-class submarines, which had been due to be retired from 2026 onwards, are currently being refurbished to serve an extra decade, until the first of Australia’s French Attack-class submarines is due to hit the water. By then, China is expected to have at least 75 submarines in the Indo-Pacific; it already has at least 60.

The Type 26 frigates, to replace the current Anzac-class frigates from the early 2030s, will be designed to have a strong anti-submarine warfare capability, which will be critical as China expands its submarine fleet. But even before the first steel for the frigates is cut, Stewart reported, it appears the project could be facing early trouble. Like the submarines, the project warrants the highest level of scrutiny to ensure it meets the nation’s security needs and delivers for taxpayers. Unlike in earlier decades, when our strategic environment was less tense, a timely delivery is more important than ever.