‘Liability for Our Allies’: Australian Military Gaps Laid Bare by Defence Expert

U.S. Marines in the joint military Exercise 'Talisman Sabre 21' in Townsville, Australia, on July 27, 2021. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

A senior defence consultant has lambasted the Australian federal government’s decision to undertake multiple defence reviews, saying it is delaying Defence’s ability to advance projects.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies NSW, Brent Clark, the CEO of the Australian Industry and Defence Network (AIDN), said time that could be spent on building security capabilities was being wasted on bureaucracy.

“The DSR [Defence Strategic Review] has come out ... and now there is also to be a further review,” Mr. Clark said.

“We have wasted time. The government has taken a year to tell us what they’re going to do, and now they’re going to do another review.”

He emphasised that the reviews halted two-year’s worth of progress on various Defence projects because they needed to wait for the DSR’s final recommendations.

“Defence was unable to progress contracting under the guise of waiting for the DSR to be completed, presented, considered, and implemented,” Mr. Clark said.

“In other words, industry sat idle for 12 months. Companies working on defence projects ground to a halt for a year.”

He was also critical of the fact that the DSR lacked clear direction for important defence systems, such as the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise. This department aims to build inventory, industrial capability, and maintenance of guided weapons and explosives.

Mr. Clark also pointed to China’s huge military build-up, which has not been hampered by similar bureaucratic barriers.

“The Chinese are outbuilding everyone else, and unlike our regulations on clean energy that hinders steel production, they have no international law obligations that limit their construction industry to renewable energy quotas,” he said.

The comment from Mr. Clark follows the remarks of U.S. Admiral John Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, who said in 2022 that China’s army was undergoing the largest buildup in the communist regime’s history since World War II.

Veteran intelligence officer Grant Newsham agreed, saying China’s ship buildup was outpacing America’s.

“The Chinese shipyards have been launching at about a rate of 5 to 1 over the last decade. So for every warship we put in the water, they put five, and they have a much bigger shipbuilding capacity than we do; we have allowed ours to wither. And the Chinese have built theirs up just at a breathtaking speed,” Mr. Newsham told NTD’s “China in Focus” program on March 4.

While the Chinese army is undergoing a huge buildup, Australia has scaled back the production of some military equipment, such as reducing production for infantry fighting vehicles from 450 to 129.

Military Production Capability

Mr. Clark highlighted the dangers of Australia’s reliance on China for parts such as electronic circuit cards that are used in a lot of military equipment, arguing that in a potential conflict with Beijing, it would be unlikely for the supply chain from China to continue.

Another area of concern was the low number of missiles that Australia is currently procuring.

The government is set to buy 220 tomahawk missiles from the United States under the AUKUS security pact, which can be depleted quickly in a war scenario.

The missiles were most recently used by the United States under executive orders of President Donald Trump in 2017, launching 59 cruise missiles into Syria in a day.

“Once our cruise missile assets are depleted, Australia is totally reliant on the United States to resupply us,” Mr. Clark said.

“The U.S. can only build those weapons at a certain rate. In that scenario, our allies would prioritise themselves first.”

Even if the United States had missiles to spare, they would be required to safely cross over 15,000 kilometres (9,400 miles) of the ocean.

This is why it was important that Australia become self-reliant, Mr. Clark said.

“The DSR does not care about the local industry. We need to build a sovereign capability. And that is going to cost money,” he said.

“But in order for Australia to protect ourselves during any period of conflict, particularly a prolonged one, we have to shift away from relying on other countries and become independent.

“Without doing that, for ourselves and our strategic partners, we are a liability.”