Finally, we are making missiles and arming defence

By Peter Roberts

It has been a long while coming, but after 29 months in office the federal government has released a Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Plan.

A recommendation of the Defence Strategic Review, the government has been meanwhile buying new weapons overseas and supporting local manufacture of some missiles and munitions.

It has taken until now to articulate a plan, apparently, though significant spending on beefing up defence and defence industry has already been announced:

• $850 million in partnership with Kongsberg Defence Australia to manufacture and maintain the Naval Strike Missile and the Joint Strike Missile from 2027
• $37.4 million in partnership with Lockheed Martin Australia for an initial batch of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) missiles to be manufactured in Australia from 2025
• up to $60 million over five years to develop hypersonic and long-range strike capabilities
• And $22 million over three years to seek options from industry for the production of rocket motors in Australia.

This has all seemed a bit dwarfed by $7 billion to acquire the Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC (SM-2 IIIC) and Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) long-range missiles from the United States – no local content here.

However yesterday the government applied the cherry to the the defence industry cake, committing to two new Australian defence factories – one to manufacture Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, and the second a new 155mm artillery ammunition forging plant.

Now this has all come together in a plan, it can be said that the government has moved quickly to accelerate the import of new systems, and deliver missile manufacturing in Australia.

Where we were not manufacturing any missiles, we are well on the way to making several.

This is becoming an impressive, potent arsenal, backed by as yet modest industry capability.

It just shows up how undergunned were our services, and how bereft was our manufacturing sector of these basics of modern warfare.

Further reading:
Australia invests in missile and ammunition manufacturing

Picture: Defence/Kongsberg Defence Australia/ Tfire of a development Joint Strike Missile on the US Air Force’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter