Australian Defence boost amid costs blowouts

A flagged budget boost for ­Defence comes amid ongoing blowouts in sustainment costs and shortfalls in the planned availability of key military capabilities.

A flagged budget boost for ­Defence this week comes amid ongoing blowouts in sustainment costs and shortfalls in the planned availability of key military capabilities.

Updated budget numbers published in February reveal the cost of running and maintaining Defence capabilities this financial year has been revised up by $703m since the last budget, while the sustainment bill for 2020-21 came in more than $1bn higher than originally forecast.

The $1.7bn blowout over two years, revealed in the department’s Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements, comes despite continued underperformance of Australian Defence Force ships and aircraft.

The February budget update reveals the navy’s “major combatants” – a category that includes the Collins-class submarines, Hobart-class air warfare destroyers, and Anzac-class frigates – were on track to be at sea for 243 fewer days this financial year than forecast in the 2021-22 budget.

The navy’s “minor combatants”, including Armidale and Cape-class patrol boats and Huon-class minehunters, were facing a 709-day shortfall in their availability this financial year, against budget estimates.

Australia’s frontline P-8A Posei­don maritime patrol aircraft were forecast in February to fly 1125 fewer hours than budgeted, while the RAAF’s workhorse C-130J Hercules aircraft remained on the ground for 1350 more hours than planned.

The F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. Picture: Alex Coppel.

The air force’s most potent air combat platform, the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, had their 2021-22 flying hours downgraded by 25 per cent, as previously revealed by The Australian.

The government will try to use the budget to burnish its national security credentials ahead of the May election.

Josh Frydenberg on Sunday said Australians “will see more investment in national security and defence (in the budget), because we do face very uncertain international times”.

Labor’s assistant defence spokesman, Pat Conroy, said paying more money for capabilities that failed to meet planned availability benchmarks “takes a special form of incompetence”.

“The government boasts about more defence spending but they have been spectacularly bad at ­ensuring that the money is not wasted,” he said. “The quality of the spend matters as much as the quantity. The government has been unable to convert increased defence spending into capability the ADF can use when needed.

“Scott Morrison and (Defence Minister) Peter Dutton fail to understand there is little point spending billions on weapon systems for the ADF if they are not available when they are needed.”

A Defence spokeswoman said the sustainability spending adjustments reflected “revised estimates, based on deliberate strategies to manage (funding) across various categories of the Defence budget”.

She said this included the re­allocation of funding to sustainment activities from acquisition programs that had been delayed by Covid-affected supply chains.

Mr Dutton said last week that Anthony Albanese was “a huge risk to national security”, pointing to Labor’s move to slash Defence spending to 1.56 per cent of GDP when last in office. “There’s a huge difference between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese when it comes to defence of our country and investment into our Defence forces, and that is a huge decision for people to make at the election.”

In a speech earlier this month, Mr Albanese said Labor recognised the need for Defence budgets “beyond the 2 per cent benchmark … Labor will ensure Defence has the resources it needs to defend Australia and to deter potential ­aggressors,” he said.