Australia Boosts Missile Defense Following China’s ICBM Test

China's DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

Australia will enhance its missile defense and long-range strike capability following China’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in the South Pacific, the country’s defense industry minister said on Oct. 30.

China’s Indo-Pacific neighbors expressed concern after the Chinese communist regime’s military tested an ICBM on Sept. 25.

Pat Conroy, the Australian defense industry minister, said in a speech to the National Press Club of Australia on Oct. 30, “Analysts believe we are now on the cusp of a new Indo-Pacific missile age,” in which missiles are also “tools of coercion.”

He said Australia will invest about AU$18 billion (about US$12 billion) in missile defense and cooperate with security partners in the United States, Japan, and South Korea to contribute to regional stability.

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

“We expressed significant concern about that ballistic missile test, particularly its entry into the South Pacific given the Treaty of Rarotonga that says the Pacific should be a nuclear-weapons-free zone.”

Australia was deploying SM-6 missiles on its navy destroyer fleet to provide ballistic missile defense, he said.

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

Before September’s test, the Chinese military had not fired a long-range missile into the Pacific since 1980.

Analysts have said the missile, which carried a dummy warhead, was likely to be China’s newest ICBM, the Dong Feng-41 (DF-41), or an older ICBM, the Dong Feng-31AG. “Dong Feng” means “East Wind” in Chinese.

The DF-41 is China’s longest-range ICBM, capable of traveling 12,000 to 15,000 kilometers (about 7,456 to 9,321 miles). The DF-31AG has a shorter range of 7,000 to 11,700 km (about 4,350 to 7,270 miles).

Fired on Sept. 25 from an undisclosed location—widely believed to be a site on Hainan Island, which sits north of the South China Sea—the missile traveled about 12,000 km (about 7,456 miles) and landed near French Polynesia, a group of islands that includes Tahiti.

Beijing maintains a “no-first-use” policy regarding nuclear weapons and has urged other nuclear powers to make the same promise. Analysts are skeptical of the Chinese communist regime’s willingness to stick to its policy in a war scenario.

China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal, of which about 350 are ICBMs, and will probably have more than 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon estimated in 2023.

On Oct. 30, the Australian government launched its plans to rapidly establish domestic missile manufacturing capability and develop long‑range strike capability.

The government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party, has committed to putting AU$74 billion toward both domestic missile manufacturing and missile acquisition over the next decade.

An Australian government report said that the Chinese regime “continues to develop the largest ballistic missile program in the world, with an expanded arsenal of cruise and hypersonic missiles” and that “this is taking place without the strategic reassurance or transparency the region expects from great powers.”

Under the Australian Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Plan, the country will move from having no dedicated guided missile manufacturing factories to at least two purpose-built guided missile manufacturing factories by 2029.

The government said it would also establish a munitions factory by the end of the decade to supply the Australian Defence Force with longer-range artillery ammunition.

According to Australia’s government, China is the country’s largest two-way trading partner, accounting for 26 percent of its goods and services trade. Australia adheres to a one-China policy, meaning it does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country.

An Australian-led joint statement delivered to the United Nations on Oct. 22 expressed ongoing concerns about serious human rights violations in China.

On Oct. 23, Australia’s ambassador to the United Nations, James Larsen, called on the Chinese Communist Party to uphold human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet.

Lily Zhou and Reuters contributed to this report.