Australia will spend more than $1bn on new naval missiles and acquiring a US rocket artillery system used by the Ukrainian military.
The defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, said the acquisition of 20 high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars) including launchers, missiles and training rockets, from the US defence contractor Lockheed Martin was the “largest expansion of army strike capability in living memory”, reflecting the need to deter threats in a time of “strategic uncertainty”.
Defence has also signed a contract with the Norwegian firm Kongsberg to provide naval strike missiles, replacing the ageing Harpoon anti-ship missiles on Hobart-class destroyers and Anzac-class frigates from 2024. The number of missiles ordered is classified.
Defence will additionally acquire a weapon-locating radar system from the Australian company CEA.
The Himars will be in service by 2026-27, increasing the range of Australian army strike weapons from the current 30km to 50km to up to 300km, with further advances in the precision strike missile achieving a range of more than 499km.
Acquisition of the naval strike missiles was flagged by the Morrison government in April as part of $3.5bn in spending but Conroy said the Albanese government had “sped up the acquisition cycle for both” naval missiles and Himars.
“If we – for Himars – had stuck with the former government’s plans, we would’ve lost our place in the production queue due to huge global demand.”
The defence minister, Richard Marles, said: “In the current strategic environment, it’s important the Australian Defence Force is equipped with high-end, targeted military capabilities.”
Marles said Labor was taking “a proactive approach to keeping Australia safe” and the acquisitions “will give our defence force the ability to deter conflict and protect our interests”.
Conroy said the technology involved in the acquisitions “takes our forces to the cutting edge of modern military hardware”.
“The naval strike missile is a major step up in capability for our navy’s warships, while Himars launchers have been successfully deployed by the Ukrainian military over recent months and are a substantial new capability for the army.”
The chief of the Australian defence force, Gen Angus Campbell, has warned that “across our region, large-scale military modernisation is accelerating”, in a clear reference to China, and the US has increased rotations of its forces to Australia while condemning China’s “dangerous and coercive actions” across the Indo-Pacific.
Conroy said that he “won’t comment about specific countries but I will say, we’ve been very open about the fact that we face the greatest strategic uncertainty since World War II”.
In November Marles told the Sydney Institute that Australia’s defence capabilities “cannot match those of major powers” but the country needed “to project force and power, to deter military threats and defend Australia’s national interests within our immediate region”.
Marles said Australia would need to achieve “impactful projection” and “strengthen the lethality, resilience and readiness of the ADF”.
“We must invest in targeted capabilities that enable us to hold potential adversaries’ forces at risk at a distance and increase the calculated cost of aggression against Australia and its interests.”
In October Conroy suggested the government was developing a plan with defence companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to develop a sovereign missile manufacturing industry.
“Lockheed Martin is a strategic partner, they make Himars and missiles and rockets associated with that … so we’re exploring options for possible local manufacture of the rockets or missiles Himars would fire,” Conroy said.
He also said the government was “exploring options for possible greater local content in the naval strike missile”.
