Royal Australian Navy chief Mark Hammond ‘ready for spy ships’
Australia’s new Chief of Navy says he is prepared for ‘uninvited’ Chinese spy ships at the country’s flagship naval war games, Exercise Kakadu.
Australia’s new Chief of Navy says he is prepared for “uninvited” Chinese spy ships at the country’s flagship naval war games, Exercise Kakadu, as Beijing ramps up its surveillance of Western allies’ capabilities ahead of a potential Taiwan conflict.
The exercise begins off the Northern Territory on Monday, with ships and aircraft from 22 nations expected to draw the attention of Chinese intelligence-gathering vessels, which have shadowed Australian-hosted exercises in recent years.
“The exercise will happen in international waters outside our territorial seas, and it’s not unusual to see ships from many different nations in that environment,” Vice-Admiral Mark Hammond said. “We prepare accordingly, and will scale and manage the exercise accordingly, as we have in the past.”
Amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea, Vice-Admiral Hammond also highlighted what he described as “odd” behaviour by Chinese warships in the international waterway that Beijing claims as its own.
“Routinely, whenever we have a ship up there, there’s a PLA-Navy vessel within sight, quite often following us around – that’s unusual behaviour. I don’t know another navy that does that,” he said.
“It’s a departure from what we would call normal maritime behaviour, but it hasn’t stopped us from conducting our operations.”
Two US warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait in August for the first time since US house Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, drawing an angry response from Beijing.
Vice-Admiral Hammond said he was prepared to do the same if he was directed to do so by the government.
“We have certainly done that in the last couple of years. I think the question would be around government appetite to continue to do it,” he said.
A multinational flotilla of at least 15 surface ships, an Australian submarine, and more than 30 aircraft will participate in Exercise Kakadu over 15 days, conducting high-end warfare drills and maritime constabulary operations.
Two Chinese spy ships lurked in international waters off Queensland during last year’s Exercise Talisman Sabre – Australia’s largest bilateral war-games with the US.
A hi-tech Chinese intelligence ship was also monitored off Western Australia in May during the federal election campaign, which Peter Dutton labelled an “aggressive act”.
Amid a classified study by the RAN’s Vice-Admiral Jonathan Mead on how Australia would acquire nuclear submarines, Vice-Admiral Hammond brushed off what he described as “speculation” that Australia would have little chance of securing the boats off the US production line.
The US Navy’s Strategic Submarines Program executive officer, Rear Admiral Scott Pappano, said recently America’s shipbuilding workforce was flat out building submarines for its own needs and had no spare capacity to build extra subs for Australia.
“There’s been a lot of commentary ever since the announcement about a year ago. I would listen to whatever the US President and their authorised spokespeople say on this, because I think there’s going to be lots of different opinions in lots of different pockets,” Vice-Admiral Hammond said.
He said Vice-Admiral Mead was “doing a lot of work with US counterparts at a higher rank level” than Rear Admiral Pappano.
The biennial Exercise Kakadu was cancelled in 2020 because of Covid-19, but in 2018 – before the dramatic falling out between China and Australia – a PLA Navy frigate was invited to attend the war games.
Vice-Admiral Hammond declined to speculate on the remote prospect that China would ever again be asked to join the exercise.
“Participation in exercises like that is a political decision,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we are where we are. And I am yet to see an Australian ship invited to a PLA Navy exercise.”
More Coverage
Biden lauds AUKUS as key achievement
In his final foreign policy speech, Joe Biden declared the US is ‘winning the worldwide competition’, citing the AUKUS defence pact as a pivotal achievement in countering China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Not quite as bad as Gough but it’s close
The Albanese government provides no rationale or narrative for its disconnected actions. Everything is spin. We’ve seldom seen a government this poor in such critical fields at such a dangerous time.