Huge military build up planned for Australia

[Sailor]

May 02, 2009
A MASSIVE shift in global power away from the US has influenced the Federal Government to increase defence spending to a record $300 billion over a decade.

In the biggest military equipment upgrade in the nation's history, the Defence White Paper details a $100 billion shopping list that includes new submarines, warships, fighter jets, cruise missiles, helicopters, spy planes, drones and cyber-warfare equipment.

The build-up is intended to defend Australia from potential threats, ranging from nuclear conflict to failed states and water wars.

The document, entitled Force 2030, will be launched by Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon in Sydney today.

The White Paper focuses on the massive shift in global power away from the US to countries such as China, India and Russia.

It tackles the new ball game by creating a bigger, stronger and more advanced military force.

The document argues that the primary role of the military is to defend Australia from attack.

"The main role of the ADF should continue to be an ability to engage in conventional combat against other armed forces," the paper says.

As expected, the focus of the 20-year plan will be the navy and on securing Australia's maritime approaches.

To this end, the Government will buy 12 "future submarines", to be built in South Australia, eight advanced frigates and 20 2000-tonne offshore combat vessels.

The document doesn't specify whether any warships will be built at Melbourne's BAE Systems dockyard in Williamstown, where the navy's Landing Helicopter Dock project is due to start next year.

The submarines will be quieter than the Collins Class boats, able to travel much farther and remain underwater for longer, and carry secure, real-time communications and uninhabited underwater vehicles.

The submarine plan will hinge on the navy chief's ability to better manage his underwater workforce and attract new submariners.

In addition to the two 25,000-tonne amphibious ships and three destroyers already on order, it will give the navy a 15,000-tonne sealift vessel to carry supplies and troops, as well as six seagoing landing craft capable of carrying armoured vehicles.

The navy will also get 24 helicopters and access, with the army, to a further 46 multi-role helicopters.

Besides the $45 billion earmarked for the navy, the RAAF will spend more than $35 billion to replace ageing jet fighters and spy planes, acquire a fleet of large, high-altitude, unmanned aircraft and maritime patrol planes, and 10 medium-lift, fixed-wing aircraft.

The army will receive about $20 billion worth of extra troops and support equipment, including seven Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, advanced communications and intelligence-gathering equipment, helicopters and hand-launched missiles.

The document concludes that war between states, including major powers, remains a risk.

It also provides for better pay, conditions and housing for the Australian Defence Force's 55,000 uniformed personnel.

 

[Pintu]

That report on the massive build up plan for the Australia report really exciting.
Sailor any news for any Aircraft Carrier construction for Australia, or any future plans regarding this.
As for India we have Massive build up plans.

Regards

 

[Sailor]

Pintu that will never happen. No aircraft carrier.
We had two aircraft carriers in the past. HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney.
We nearly bought HMS Invinsible off the British in 1980 and then the Falklands war broke out and the RN decided they needed it.
Anti submarine helicopter carrier might happen though but we will never go back to fixed wing carriers.

 

[F-14]

HMAS Melbourne (R21)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Melbourne_(R21)

HMAS Sydney (R17)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Sydney_(R17)

Majestic class aircraft carrier

Majestic class aircraft carrier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Singh]

Sailor please add a link to the original article

 

[Yusuf]

That's quite a lot of purchase of military hardware. How is Australia going to pump in so much money?
I know the economy of Australia is good, but still that's a lot of money.

 

[Sailor]

Sorry Singh it's lost

Yusuf, we'll borrow it from the Chinese...........LOL

Cat. Great additions.........thanks.

 

[Yusuf]

Borrow from the Chinese? The when build up is probably after you guys realized the threat the Chinese present.

 

[Sailor]

Yeah but we sell all our metals to the Chinese for them to build their stuff then we have to build our stuff with the money they pay us.

 

[Yusuf]

When the threat becomes all too apparant and you finally decide that you had enough of the Chinese proliferation, all that cake you are selling them will stop. I have a feeling that we may have another cold war in the future with China being one of the protagonists.

 

[Sailor]

This happened in the late thirties with the Japanese. They used to call our Prime Minister before the war, 'Pig Iron Bob" because he wouldn't stop pig iron ingot saales to Japan.
It all came back later in bullets it was said.

 

[Yusuf]

Nukes will far outweigh the bullets mate.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Australia says military boost due to shifting dynamics

Australia says military boost due to shifting dynamics

Under the plan, Canberra will acquire long-range cruise missiles, double its submarine fleet to 12 and buy 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets and eight new warships.
by Staff Writers
Melbourne, Australia (AFP) May 3, 2009
Australia's defence minister denied Sunday that the country was massively boosting military spending solely because of China's emergence as a global power.

Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon unveiled plans Saturday to spend more than 70 billion US dollars in the next 20 years boosting Australia's military capability.

Fitzgibbon said the move was prompted by global power shifts which meant that, while the United States would remain the world's dominant power, other countries would take on a more significant role.

"It's not about China necessarily," he told Channel Nine television when asked if Australia was over-reacting to Beijing's rise.

Fitzgibbon said shifting power dynamics meant more uncertainty and Australia, a strong US ally, had to be prepared to defend itself.

"We do think that there will be a number of other powers floating about, China and India for example, the re-emergence of Russia," he said.

"It's natural that that sort of change can, and probably will, lead to strategic competition and maybe strategic tension, which in turn can turn into miscalculation.

"This country is determined to ensure that we are ready for any such contingencies.

"That's why we're substantially increasing our military capability so that we can defend this nation without necessarily relying on the armed forced of any other nation state."

Fitzgibbon confirmed that Canberra sent the author of Australia's military spending plan, Mike Pezzullo, to Beijing to brief the Chinese on Australia's intentions and explain the strategic thinking behind the move.

But he denied reports that the Chinese were unimpressed with Australia's plans and had told Pezzullo Canberra was aligning itself too closely with the United States.

The author of Australia's last major defence review, Hugh White, who now works at privately funded foreign policy think tank the Lowy Institute, said the latest review, or white paper, was clearly prompted by China's rise.

"One of the important things about this white paper is that it puts the Asia-Pacific region -- and the way it changes as China grows -- right at the centre of the government's approach to defence," he told ABC television.

White said he did not believe China was a direct threat to Australia but its rise could create instability in the region.

"I think we need to move away from a narrow focus on the China threat and think more broadly about the kind of region we're living in and what role we as Australians ought to be trying to play," he said.

Under the plan, Canberra will acquire long-range cruise missiles, double its submarine fleet to 12 and buy 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets and eight new warships.

 

[yang]

Yeah but we sell all our metals to the Chinese for them to build their stuff then we have to build our stuff with the money they pay us.

To say the truth ,I think we have done sth stupid,if we know the recession would come so soon,we would't buy so many metals and sign so many contracts with Australia,because we are now buying them at a sacrifice .
But Australia has done a good job.

 

[dave lukins]

the Defence White Paper details a $100 billion shopping list

What is the betting that over the period given, this $100bn will double? Have you ever known a defence budget to be accurate? Obviously peace doesn't come cheap

 

[LETHALFORCE]

this also maybe prepartion for any Chinese aggression towards taiwan, with Obama displaying a subservient attitude this would be a good opportunity to capitalize on the perceived weakness??? if Chinese are successful in taking Taiwan i doubt they will stop there, good for Australia to be prepared for this possibility. Even in WW2 the Japanese wanted to take Australia and got close.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Australia cites China, India, as reasons for a major military buildup | csmonitor.com


Australia cites China, India, as reasons for a major military buildup
Prime Minister Rudd proposes $72 billion in new spending. US military can't protect it, say analysts.
By Tom A. Peter

posted May 03, 2009 at 10:01 am EST


Almost two decades after the end of the cold war, a new arms race may be under way in the Pacific. Responding to the expansion of China's military, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd sparked a storm of controversy on Saturday when he released a report calling for a $72 billion expansion of the military over the next 20 years.

Among other upgrades, Australia would purchase 100 F-35 fighter jets, 12 hunter-killer submarines, 46 Tiger helicopters, and 100 armored vehicles, while also investing in cyber and electronic warfare technologies, according to the 140-page report titled "Defending Australia in the Asia-Pacific Century: Force 2030."

The report cited the threats of North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs, cyber attacks, and piracy, but it points to the rise of China and India as the most imminent concern in the coming years. It also adds that US military dominance is now uncertain and therefore its assistance to Australia is no longer guaranteed.

Although Prime Minister Rudd says he is not anticipating a conflict with China, he insists that his nation must be prepared for a worst-case scenario. Amid the global economic crisis, however, many Australians question the value of a major increase in military spending, which may burden taxpayers.

Since the publication of the report, Rudd has been on the defensive. In a public appearance on Saturday he emphasized that while Australia hopes to maintain good relations with its neighbors, there are very real indicators that power dynamics could change, endangering Australia unless action is taken.

"It's as plain as day that there is a significant military and naval build-up across the Asia-Pacific region, that's a reality, it's a truth, it's there," said Rudd in an Australian Associated Press article. "Either you can simply choose to ignore that fact, or to incorporate that into a realistic component of Australia's strategic assumptions about what this region will look like over the next two decades."

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has blasted the viability of Mr. Rudd's plan, saying that he relies too heavily on the China threat, which he describes as "unlikely and not realistic" given the nation's current relations with the communist state. Additionally, an article in The Age describes the plan as potentially leaving "financial time bombs" for future governments.

"This is a massive increase in expenditure, and yet in 140 pages we only have this — 1 1/3 pages, back-of-the-envelope calculations on how it is going to be paid," said Mr. Turnbull in The Age. "Nobody reading this white paper could have any confidence that the Government has the capacity, the commitment, or even knows how it is going to pay for this dramatic expansion in our military hardware."

The Defense Department has been asked to find $20 billion in savings to help offset the cost of the program. Joel Fitzgibbon, the defense minister, remains confident that the government can manage the cost of the military expansion and says a detailed spending plan will be released next week when the government releases the federal budget, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Despite assurances, there remains widespread skepticism, as almost every Australian news outlet ran a story on Saturday questioning or explaining just where the money would come from. One such report in the Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at Australian National University, who pointed to the Defense Department's long history of wasteful spending.

"To achieve those savings, Defence will have to be driven harder than it has ever been driven before. … There's a lot of
waste and inefficiency

in Defence. [The savings] can be done but only by really fundamentally changing the way Defence operates," he said in the Herald.

Meanwhile, The Australian reports that Japan has indicated solidarity about concerns regarding China's rapidly increasing military might. Speaking in Perth, Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said the communist state's military expansion policy was an "issue of some concern" to the region.

In China, the official state news agency, Xinhua, took an optimistic view of the proposed buildup, noting it's potential to help Australian economy by reviving industry. The Chinese news agency quoted Rudd saying, "It is good news for industry as many of the new assets will be built locally."

Australia's push for a stronger military force may also be reflective of a growing "fortress Australia" mentality, writes BBC Australia correspondent Nick Bryant in his news blog. Less able to depend on the US for support like it has since World War II, Mr. Bryant writes that "stout self-defence and self-reliance are the watchwords" in Australia now. For many Australians, there is a view that having a better equipped military may allow them to take more independent positions, writes Bryant.

 

[Sailor]

These six new ships could be tied up at the wharf for awhile.
One of the great blessings that Australia has, if not the greatest is that no one lives here.
We only have twenty million and the sort of migrants we are getting aren't exactly suitable for the military.
I for one don't know where are these new personnel are going to come from.