Pat Conroy announces missile plant but critics say it’s ‘too little, too late’ to deter China over Taiwan
Australia will get a new guided weapons factory capable of producing up to 4000 missiles a year under a high-risk plan aimed at bolstering the nation’s war stocks and those of key allies for a potential conflict with China.
Australia will get a new guided weapons factory capable of producing up to 4000 missiles a year under a high-risk plan aimed at bolstering the nation’s weapons stocks and those of key allies for a potential conflict with China.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the new factory would propel Australia into the “missile age”, but critics of the plan warned the weapons slated for production had insufficient range and would arrive too late to make a difference to Beijing’s strategic plans for Taiwan.
Taxpayers will fund the $316m missile factory to be located in NSW or Victoria and operated by US defence giant Lockheed Martin, and a $500m investment in supply chain firms to enable them to participate in the new missile enterprise.
The facility will produce guided multiple-launch rocket system (GMLRS) missiles from 2029, which have a range of between 70km and 150km depending on the model, delivering 400 a year for the ADF and another 3600 for international buyers.
“This is a hugely important initiative,” Mr Conroy said.
“Producing GMLRS missiles in Australia is the stepping stone towards local production of more advanced, longer-range strike weapons in the future – local production that is essential to our sovereignty and our security.”
Mr Conroy confirmed the government had also handed a new contract to produce 155mm artillery shells to French-owned defence company Thales, as revealed by The Australian, snubbing LNP-linked firm NIOA and its joint venture partner Rheinmetall, which already produce 155mm shells for the European market at a plant in Queensland.
Thales – which is facing a corruption probe over a previous tender process – will produce 15,000 rounds a year for the Australian Army from 2028 at the commonwealth’s munitions facility in rural Victoria, with a capacity to produce up to 100,000 rounds a year.
NIOA and Rheinmetall said they could retool their plant to produce the US variant of the 155mm rounds sought by the government within 12 to 18 months.
Mr Conroy, who said he had not visited the NIOA/Rheinmetall plant in his two years in the job, said the Thales bid offered better value for money.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission is examining allegations a former Defence official who went on to work for Thales handed the company confidential information before it was awarded a $1.2bn munitions contract in 2017. Mr Conroy said Defence had investigated the matter, finding there was “no evidence to substantiate the allegation”.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the artillery decision left the Coalition “scratching our heads”, and attacked the government’s missile plan as “shallow, weak and lethargic”.
“Labor talks a big game on defence, frequently reminding Australians that we are living in the most dangerous times since the end of the Second World War,” he said.
“But while our close allies are taking action to invest in and grow their industrial bases, the Albanese government is slow to act in securing Australia’s advanced manufacturing and supply chains.”
Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Malcolm Davis warned the plan’s timeline left the nation exposed, and that the GMLRS missiles did not have a long enough range to deter Chinese aggression.
“My concern is we’re in a pre-war period and time is not our friend and so therefore, how do we somehow surge that process so that we can accelerate it, so we get to run as fast as possible as soon as possible and then expand?” Dr Davis said.
He said the government needed to set out “how quickly we can go from short-range GMLRS to something else that’s much greater range that actually contributes to impactful projection”.
But Mr Conroy rejected suggestions the government was moving too slowly. “I wish I could have a time machine and go back to 2019 and 2016 and be the minister driving change, but we don’t have that luxury,” he said.
“So what we can do now is drive investment … into equipping the ADF with long-range strike and the weapons they need.”
Hard to get bang for your buck when asleep at the wheel
Pat Conroy’s fatuous and preposterous speech to the National Press Club on the coming missile age exemplifies everything that is wrong with defence policy under the Albanese government.
Locals snubbed in favour of French for artillery shells plant
The Albanese government will snub LNP-linked defence company Nioa to hand a major new contract to produce 155mm artillery shells to a French rival at the centre of a corruption probe.