DEFENCE POLICY – AUSTRALIA

AUKUS get-out clause for US, UK

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 13-Aug-24

Documents tabled in federal parliament on Monday have revealed new details of the AUKUS defence alliance. The documents, which include a revised AUKUS agreement, show that the US and the UK will be able to withdraw from the defence pact with only one years’ notice if the deal to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines is deemed to be an ‘unreasonable risk’ to their own military requirements. Meanwhile, Australia has agreed to indemnify its alliance partners for any liability, costs or injury resulting from the AUKUS program. International law expert Don Rothwell notes that the documents do not outline just how much the alliance will cost Australia.

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Nuclear debate could undermine AUKUS

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 5 : 25-Jun-24

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese does not expect the nation’s current debate on nuclear energy to have any impact on bipartisan support for the AUKUS alliance. However, Peter Dean from the United States Studies Centre has emphasised the need for a factually informed, evidence-based discussion on the issue of nuclear power. He adds that the alliance is not based on Australia having a civil nuclear industry, and that the scale and size of the reactors in the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines is very different to a civil nuclear power industry. Professor Dean was the lead author of the federal government’s Defence Strategic Review.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. UNITED STATES STUDIES CENTRE

We can’t mount solo defence against invasion any more: Beazley

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Original article by Ben Packham, Sarah Ison, Joe Kelly
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 29-May-24

Defence Minister Richard Marles delivered a keynote speech at the Defending Australia summit in Canberra on Tuesday night. He said the world is currently facing the most threatening strategic circumstance since the end of World War II, and emphasised the importance of the AUKUS alliance to Australia’s defence strategy. However, former Labor leader Kim Beazley told the summit that Australia’s military can longer defend the nation from invasion without support from the US; he argued that the nation was ”absolutely" able to defend itself when he was defence minister in the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF DEFENCE

AUKUS subs bigger, better, bolder

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Original article by Brendan Nicholson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 28-May-24

The Australian Submarine Agency’s director-general Jonathan Mead is confident that the project to build five SSN-AUKUS submarines in South Australia will be completed as planned. The nuclear-powered vessels will be based on the UK’s Astute-class submarines, but Mead says they will be "bigger, better, faster and bolder"; they will also be significantly larger than the three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines that will be added to Australia’s fleet in the early 2030s.

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AUSTRALIAN SUBMARINE AGENCY

Australia is unprepared if war breaks out

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Original article by Cameron Stewart
The Australian – Page: 2 : 28-May-24

Professor Paul Dibb says the Australian Defence Force is approximately the same size it was in 1986, when he wrote the seminal ‘Review of Australia’s defence capabilities’. Professor Dibb adds that Australia still basically has a peacetime defence force with little capacity to expand quickly in the event of a military conflict. He notes that when he produced the Dibbs report in 1986 the government of the day was spending much more on defence as a proportion of GDP than the current Labor government, despite the fact that Australia faced only low-level conflict at the time.

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AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE

US ‘hasn’t wavered’ on Australian nuclear subs

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 2 : 24-Apr-24

US State Department official Bonnie Jenkins says the Biden administration remains committed to the AUKUS defence alliance, including the sale of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. Jenkins has also responded to China’s concerns about the AUKUS pact by arguing that it is aimed at ensuring the safety and security of the Indo-Pacific region. She has emphasised that Australia will not be armed with nuclear weapons via the alliance, and the nation is permitted to have nuclear-powered submarines under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

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UNITED STATES. DEPT OF STATE

US-Japan strategy flags ADF Patriot gains

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 12-Apr-24

President Joe Biden has announced a trilateral air defence network involving the US, Japan and Australia, following a summit meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The new strategy will give Australia access to US and Japanese knowledge and hardware for the Australian Defence Force’s proposed air and missile defence system, which is in the early stages of development with Lockheed Martin. Professor Peter Dean, who was co-lead of the 2023 Defence Strategic Review, says the new strategy puts Australia on track to acquire Patriot aerial interceptor missiles.

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UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE, LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION

AUKUS subs construction delayed by years: US navy

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Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: Online : 4-Apr-24

The federal government’s deal to acquire US nuclear-powered submarines via the AUKUS alliance is under renewed scrutiny following revelations that the construction of Virginia-class vessels is 2-3 years behind schedule. An internal investigation by the US Navy has found that work on building every class of vessel is behind schedule at present, while deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell notes that the submarines program is continuing to be affected by supply-chain disruptions arising from the pandemic. Campbell has also downplayed concerns about the future of the AUKUS alliance if Donald Trump wins the presidential election.

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UNITED STATES NAVY

Labor’s drone ship gamble

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Original article by Cameron Stewart
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 21-Feb-24

The federal government will increase its spending on defence to 2.4 per cent of GDP from the early 2030s, in response to the review of the navy’s surface fleet. The government will increase defence spending by $1.7bn over the four-year forward estimates period and $11.1bn over the next decade. Amongst other things, the government will fast-track the acquisition of 11 new general purpose frigates, while the Hunter-class project will be scaled back from nine frigates to just six. The navy will also retire the first of the ageing Anzac-class frigates immediately, while a second will be decommissioned by 2026. The government will invest in a fleet of semi-autonomous ships that are still being developed in the US; these ‘drone’ ships will each have 32 missile cells, significantly increase the navy’s firepower.

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ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY

Spend more on Defence now, PM told

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Original article by Cameron Stewart
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 20-Feb-24

The review of the Australian navy’s surface fleet is expected to recommend acquiring a fleet of warships that are smaller and more heavily armed than the Hunter-class frigates. However, naval expert Jennifer Parker says this will require allocating additional spending on defence in the federal government’s budget in May. She adds that scaling back the Hunter-class program will not in itself generate sufficient cost savings to finance a new fleet of warships. The findings of the review that was undertaken by retired US admiral William Hilarides will be released today.

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ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY