Australia to ramp up missile production as Indo Pacific enters new missile age

SYDNEY — Australia said it will establish domestic manufacture of artillery ammunition with France's Thales, and guided rocket systems with Lockheed Martin, to boost its weapons stockpiles and export to security partners including the United States.

Minister for Defense Industry Pat Conroy said in a speech on Wednesday that Australia was boosting its missile defense and long-range strike capability.

"Why do we need more missiles? Strategic competition between the United States and China is a primary feature of Australia's security environment," he told the National Press Club in Canberra.

China test fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in September that travelled over 11,000km to land in the Pacific Ocean to Australia's north-east.

Conroy did not mention the Chinese test in his speech, but said the Indo Pacific was on the cusp of a new missile age, where missiles are also "tools of coercion".

"They pose a threat night and day, regardless of when or whether they are actually launched," he said.

Australia has previously said it would spend A$74 billion ($49 billion) on missile acquisition and missile defense over the next decade, including A$21 billion to fund the Australian Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise, a new domestic manufacturing capability.

"We must show potential adversaries that hostile acts against Australia would not succeed and could not be sustained if conflict were protracted," Conroy said in the speech.

Australia will spend A$316 million to establish local manufacture of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS), in partnership with Lockheed Martin, to produce the rapidly deployable, surface-to-surface weapons for export, from 2029.

The factory will be capable of producing 4,000 GMLRS a year, or a quarter of current global production, Conroy said.

France's Thales will establish Australian manufacturing of 155mm M795 artillery ammunition, used in howitzers, at an Australian government-owned munitions facility in the small Victorian city of Benalla.

It will be the first dedicated forge outside of the U.S., with production starting in 2028, and the capacity to scale up to produce 100,000 rounds a year.

The war in Ukraine was using 10,000 rounds of 155-millimetre artillery shells a day last year, outstripping European production, he said.

"In a world marked by supply chain disruption and strategic fragility, Australia needs not only to acquire more missiles, but to make more here at home," he said.

In August, Australia said it would jointly manufacture long-range Naval Strike Missiles and Joint Strike Missiles with Norway's Kongsberg Defense in the city of Newcastle on Australia's eastern coast, the only site outside of Norway.

Earlier this month, Australia announced a A$7 billion deal with the United States to acquire SM-2 IIIC and Raytheon SM-6 long-range missiles for its navy.

Australia's navy will also have Tomahawk missiles, with a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), by the end of the year, increasing the fleet's weapons range 10-fold.

© Thomson Reuters 2024.