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Highlights
- Scott Morrison has announced to execute military expansion strategy by 30% till 2040.
- This is the biggest military boost project that the country will execute after the Vietnam war.
- This move will give credibility to Australia’s strength to its opponents when it comes to the country’s safety.
The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday that Australia is likely to boost its military force by 30% till 2040, stating this to be the biggest military build-up in the past 40 years since the Vietnam War.
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The Australian government proposed to add approximately 80,000 uniformed personnel to its military force, considering the increase in risk posed by China and Russia. The estimated cost of the entire military build-up strategy is AU$38 billion or US$27 billion.
Morrison said in a press conference that this is going to be the ‘biggest increase in the size of defence forces in peacetime in Australian history.’ He also said that the military boost strategy of the Australian government was followed by the ‘threats’ that the country faces being a liberal democracy in the Indo-Pacific.
Morrison also added that some of the newly recruited troops would support a future nuclear-power submarine fleet as committed by Australia as a part of the new Australia-United Kingdom- US defence alliance (AUKUS).
Read more: Where is Australia's nuclear submarine and AU$10B spend headed?
Apart from that, Australia also planned to strengthen the submarines with conventional arms and weapons. However, the government is yet to determine the details of the program, such as whether to choose a fleet based on US or British nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Peter Dutton, the Australian Defence Minister, said that the country is focusing on recruiting uniformed troops to give a credible deterrent from expansionist military threats. Other than submarines, the newly recruited professionals will also be deployed in the Navy, cyber security division, space, land and sea-based autonomous vehicles.
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Out of all the military services, the Australian government believed that the Navy would require the largest workforce boost in coming years to grow in surface vessels and future nuclear-powered submarines, with submariner numbers to increase at least to 2,300 from the current number of 900.
However, it appears that the government has no plan to establish a dedicated disaster relief service within the Defence or any boost to the ADF reserve number as a part of the defence expansion strategy.
