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Agence France-Presse

Australia will boost its defence force personnel by some 30 per cent by 2040, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday, describing it as the largest military build-up in peacetime.
The defence forces would grow by 18,500 personnel to 80,000 over the 18-year period, at a cost of some A$38 billion (US$27 billion), Morrison said at an army barracks in Brisbane.
Morrison, who is expected to call a general election in May, told a news conference it was the “biggest increase in the size of our defence forces in peacetime in Australian history”.
He said the military build-up was a recognition by his government of the “threats and the environment that we face as a country, as a liberal democracy in the Indo-Pacific”.
Australia to build new US$7.4 billion nuclear-submarine base
The prime minister said some of the new troops would support a future nuclear-powered submarine fleet, promised under a new Australia-Britain-US defence alliance, Aukus.
Australia says it plans to arm the submarines with conventional weapons but has yet to decide on the details of the programme, including whether to opt for a fleet based on US or British nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Forged at a time of growing Chinese influence in the Pacific region, the Aukus alliance would make Australia the only non-nuclear weapons power with nuclear-powered submarines, capable of travelling long distances without surfacing.


Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the build-up of forces, to be focused on uniformed troops, would provide a credible deterrent from expansionist military threats.
Beyond submarines, the new forces would be deployed in areas including space, cyber operations, naval assets, and land and sea-based autonomous vehicles, Dutton said.
“It is absolutely necessary,” he said, invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
“People who believe that President Putin’s only ambition is for Ukraine don’t understand the history that our military leaders understand.”
Is China a key motivation behind Australia’s A$804m Antarctica funding boost?
The defence minister reiterated warnings about the strategic threat to Australia in the Asia-Pacific region, where China is flexing its increased power.
“If people think that the ambitions within the Indo-Pacific are restricted just to Taiwan and there won’t be knock-on impacts if we don’t provide a deterrent effect and work closely with our colleagues and with our allies, then they don’t understand the lessons of history,” Dutton said.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese in a speech on Thursday said Australia’s national security interests must “transcend the partisan divide”.
He sharply criticised China for offering Russia relief from sanctions despite its war with Ukraine, a similar line to Morrison’s ruling coalition.
Australia’s Bangladesh focus cheered in trade pivot away from China
Australia’s conservative coalition government has been brandishing its defence credentials in the run-up to the election, with a string of polls showing the opposition Labor party ahead.
But the government has been criticised for being too slow to deploy troops to help people hit by a near two-week flooding disaster across eastern Australia that has killed 21 people.
Morrison said on Thursday that the deployment of navy, army and air force personnel across the flood-damaged east coast would grow to 5,748 by the end of the day.


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Australia

Australia injects US$27 billion into military expansion as Indo-Pacific threats rise

Australia’s defence forces would grow by 18,500 personnel to 80,000 by 2040. Photo: ADF via AP

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (right) visits an army barracks in Brisbane on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Aukus deal: Australia seeks to acquire nuclear submarines before 2040, defence minister says

Australia’s Collins Class submarines at a naval base in Perth. File photo: EPA-EFE

Australia to build nuclear-submarine base as PM warns of Ukraine war spillover

An Australian Collins-class submarine and a British nuclear-powered attack submarine are seen last year at Australia’s existing submarine base in Perth. Photo: EPA

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: AP

News

Asia

Australasia

The security forces would grow by 18,500 personnel to 80,000 by 2040, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said
He added it was the ‘biggest increase in the size of our defence forces in peacetime in Australian history’


The security forces would grow by 18,500 personnel to 80,000 by 2040, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.


Defence

Aukus alliance

Brisbane