[A-List] Australia: vast military expansion

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Australia's plan to double defence spending signals wish to be key military
player

David Fickling in Sydney
Thursday February 5, 2004
The Guardian

Australia will more than double its defence budget over the next three years
under plans that will turn the country into one of the world's major
military powers.

The government has revealed it intends to increase overall spending by £21bn
over the next 10 years. The proposal highlights the country's determination
to position itself as a key ally of Washington in conflicts around the
world, and could place Australia behind Japan and Saudi Arabia as the
biggest military spender outside Europe and the UN security council.

Describing the plan as a "quantum leap forward" for the Australian defence
force (ADF), the defence minister, Robert Hill, said involvement in the
Middle East, East Timor, and the Solomon Islands made it more difficult for
the military to meet its targets.

"The unprecedented level of recent deployments indicates that our forces
must adapt to a broad range of operational demands in widely varied
environments," he said.

In 2006, the highest-spending period of the plan, additional spending is
likely to be pushed as high as £8bn - more than doubling the existing sum.
The final cost over the lifetime of the plan is likely to be even greater,
as the paper does not mention Australia's promised involvement in America's
"son of star wars" national missile defence system.

Opposition defence spokesman Chris Evans said that cost over-runs detailed
in the paper indicated that the final bill would be larger than current
estimates. "The problem with the defence capability plan has never been the
plan itself. It has always been with the government's ability to deliver new
capabilities on time and on budget," he said.

Analysts believe such over-runs could push the total cost to £26bn.

Border security is a key priority for Canberra, which fears terrorist
activity in its neighbour Indonesia, and the arrival of refugee boats on its
northern shores. The budget includes more than £400m to be spent on a
squadron of 10 unmanned aerial surveillance aircraft, £1.9bn for maritime
patrol aircraft, and a £400m upgrade of electronic surveillance equipment
covering northern Australia and Indonesia.

The biggest single ticket is the £6.2bn earmarked for spending on the joint
strike fighter, a project to overhaul Australia's fighter aircraft, which is
unlikely to be delivered on time.