Defence Minister Peter Dutton puts new strike force on fast track

Australian fighter jets and naval vessels will be armed sooner with new long-range strike missiles to hold enemies at bay at ranges of up to 900km, under a $3.5bn commitment.

Under the acquisition plan, Australia’s Super Hornets will be armed with the latest US-made Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles by 2024, three years ahead of schedule.

Australian fighter jets and naval vessels will be armed sooner with new long-range strike missiles to hold enemies at bay at ranges of up to 900km, under a $3.5bn commitment to fast-track key guided weapons purchases.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton will announce the accelerated timetable for new air and sea-launched missile capabilities on Tuesday, as he reveals US defence giants Raytheon and Lockheed Martin will lead the nation’s $1bn sovereign guided-weapons enterprise.

Under the acquisition plan, Australia’s Super Hornets will be armed with the latest US-made Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM-ER) by 2024, three years ahead of schedule.

The Hobart-class Destroyers and Anzac Frigates will be equipped with new Norwegian-made Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) the same year, five years sooner than originally planned.

The navy will also acquire new hi-tech sea mines three years ahead of schedule, to secure the nation’s ports and maritime approaches in the event of conflict.

As the lead contractors for the missile enterprise, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin will manufacture guided weapons for the ­Australian Defence Force domestically and provide an alternative supply chain for the US military.

It is yet to be revealed which missiles will be produced in ­Australia, or whether the enterprise will produce complete ­weapons or components. It is also unclear whether new Australian-designed precision-guided munitions will be developed under the arrangement.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says ‘our ADF must be able to hold potential adversary forces and infrastructure at risk from a greater distance’. Picture: Gary Ramage

Defence has been scrambling to provide the ADF with long-range strike capabilities amid the cancellation of the Attack-class submarines and the likely 20-year timeline before Australia gets its first nuclear-powered sub.

Mr Dutton said the accelerated delivery of the JASSM-ER and the NWM, together with the previously announced acquisition of Tomahawk cruise missiles, would provide the ADF with long-range hitting power to deter a broad range of threats.

“With Australia’s strategic ­environment becoming more complex and challenging, our ADF must be able to hold potential adversary forces and infrastructure at risk from a greater distance,” Mr Dutton said.

“These world-class strike weapon systems will equip our forces to better protect Australia’s maritime approaches and when necessary, contribute to coalition operations in our region.”

The extended range JASSM-ER is an air-to-ground cruise missile that can hit targets up to 900km away. According to its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, it is a precision standoff missile “designed to destroy high-value, well-defended” targets, while keeping aircrews safe from air-­defence systems.

The JASSM-ERs will initially be fitted to the nation’s 24 Super Hornets, and later to the RAAF’s F-35A JSFs.

The NSM, made by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, is a stealthy anti-ship missile that can hit targets at ranges of up to 185km.

It will replace the current Harpoon anti-ship missiles currently carried by the Anzac and Hobart-class vessels, more than doubling the vessels’ strike range.

Raytheon and Lockheed Martin provide the lion’s share of the ADF’s guided-weapons inventory, and are at the forefront of the West’s guided-missile developers.

“We will be working with them to rapidly increase our ability to maintain and manufacture guided weapons and their components in Australia,” Mr Dutton said.

Three local partners – the Australian Missile Corporation, the Sovereign Missile Alliance and Aurecon Advisory – will support Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to develop the sovereign missile industry. Mr Dutton said the production of guided weapons and explosive ordnance in Australia would be a highly complex and “whole-of-nation” endeavour.

The announcements coincide with an update by Scott Morrison, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson on Tuesday, on progress towards the trilateral AUKUS partnership and Australia’s planned nuclear submarines. They also come just days before a likely election announcement that will trigger a campaign in which the Coalition will claim to be the better option to ensure the nation’s security in the face of growing global instability. Labor says it is committed to delivering the same long-term Defence policy blueprint as the government.

Last week’s federal budget revealed there would not be any real increase in Defence funding above the trajectory set in 2016. On Friday, Defence revealed the cancellation of the ADF’s first armed drone, the SkyGuardian.

The creation of a sovereign-missile enterprise hinges on the agreement of the US congress to share the intellectual property that underpins the weapons systems, which were developed with US taxpayers’ funds and are among the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has estimated that Australia will spend $100bn in the next 20 years on missile and guided-weapons purchases. The government believes the new sovereign missile enterprise could generate $40bn in local missile production over that time.

Mr Dutton will announce the new missile purchases at HMAS Kuttabul, on Sydney’s Garden Island, where he will inspect HMAS Hobart – the first of the nation’s three Air Warfare Destroyers.