Prime Minister Morrison (Scott Morrison) today announced that he would allocate $270 billion in military spending over the next 10 years to strengthen Australia's three armed forces, including extensive procurement and deployment of long-range air-launched anti-ship missiles to enhance the country's defense and security.
The Australian media say the federal government's new defense spending plan aims to deter enemy attacks by targeting China's growing military to the Pacific and Indian Ocean, including the purchase and deployment of $800 million of the U.S. Navy AGM-158C long-range anti-ship missiles.
AGM-158C long-range anti-ship missiles can be launched by fighter planes or warships, with a range of 370 kilometers, three times Australia's current range of missiles.
In a speech Wednesday at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, Prime Minister Morrison stressed the 10-year plan to strengthen the defence capabilities of the three armed forces, including land, sea and air, by investing in high-tech weapons and strengthening cyber-warfare capabilities, as well as recruiting 800 more defense troops.
He pointed out that China's growing tension with other countries in the Indo-Pacific region may threaten Australia.
He said: "The Indo-Pacific region has caused tensions due to territorial disputes, such as the border disputes we have seen recently on the Sino-Indian border, in the South China Sea and the East China Sea."
"The risk of miscalculation or even conflict is increasing. military modernization in the region is taking place at an unprecedented rate. Mandatory activity prevails. "
Morrison explained that Australia had to develop long-range attack capability to act as a long-range deterrent and to keep those who intended to crimes away from the country.
"[ Australia] must be able to put the army and infrastructure of potential rivals at risk further away, thereby affecting their calculations of the costs incurred threat their interests in Australia ," he said. "
This includes the development of combat capabilities in such areas as long-range strike weapons, cyber capabilities and regional denial-of-arms systems. "
government's National Defense Strategy Update 2020, released today, outlines a defense spending plan of $270 billion over a decade, much higher than the $19.5 billion defense spending plan in the defense white paper released in 2016.
It includes $75 billion for new surface ships and underwater monitoring systems as part of the largest replacement of Royal Australian Navy equipment since World War II.
Federal government has further allocated 65 billion yuan to develop air combat capabilities, including 17 billion yuan for new fighter jets and 9.3 billion yuan for hypersonic weapons.
The U.S., Russia and China are a race to develop hypersonic weapons, which fly at least five times the speed of sound and can hardly be intercepted.
The Australian Army will receive $55 billion in military spending over the next decade, including the purchase of long-range rockets and other artillery systems.
Prime Minister Morrison said Australia needed to "face the reality" that the world had entered a "strategic era" in which national prosperity and security were threat.
He said :" The reality is that even if we look at the epidemic at home, we need to prepare for a poorer, more dangerous, more chaotic post-epidemic world. "
"The responsibility of government to persevere is to protect Australia's national interests, our sovereignty and the safety of its people. "
Morrison sent a strong message to India's Pacific region that Australia "will never" give up "its freedom or sovereignty.
"We want to be good neighbours and reach out ," he said. "
"We will not attempt to entangle or or silence our neighbours.
"We respect their sovereignty. We want others to respect our sovereignty ."
Morrison stressed that Australia and Japan, India and South Korea and other countries in conflict between the United States and China, in the maintenance of security in the region can play an important role.
"relationship between China and the United States is tricky ," he said. "
