Australia’s defence technique “just doesn’t cut it” amid a rising China, former defence drive chief and one of many co-author’s of the wide-ranging Defence Strategic Review has warned.
Sir Angus Houston, showing on the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday, closely criticised Beijing’s rising army exercise within the South China Sea and mentioned Australia’s navy lacked the lethality to counter the rising superpower.
He warned there was a danger of “serious incident or, worse, some form of conflict” if China continued to ramp up its fortification within the South China Sea.
“That contravenes the global rules-based order and from an Australian point of view certainly undermines our national interest – the South China Sea is incredibly important to us,” he mentioned.
“There’s always the potential for some form of misunderstanding or miscalculation which could result in some sort of serious incident or, even worse, some form of conflict.”
Sir Angus mentioned Australia’s long-running defence technique, employed for many years via regional peace, now “just doesn’t cut it”, warning Australia was dealing with “the worst strategic circumstances in my lifetime”.
He criticised the shortage of transparency round China’s personal army build-up and mentioned Australia wanted to be pre-emptive and considerably scale up its navy.
He foreshadowed a significant shift to smaller and extra closely armed vessels as he criticised the gradual uptake in making missiles onshore.
Sir Angus mentioned buying guided weapons, particularly these with long-range strike capabilities, was probably the most pressing transfer required to strengthen the nation’s defences.
The DSR included a – criticised – advice for a evaluation into the navy’s floor fleet, together with the $45bn Hunter-class program, and $4bn for 12 offshore patrol vessels.
Defence Minister Richard Marles mentioned it was “very important that we bring a lot more potency to our Defence Force … and navy is very much in the forefront of our minds in terms of how we respond to the Defence Strategic Review”.
“It is really important that we are doing everything we can to meet this challenge because we do face a very complex time,” he advised Channel 9.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton mentioned Australia wanted to be sturdy to keep up peace.
“And all of us want peace and stability in our region. We want the status quo in Taiwan, and we want the trading relationship with China to continue to go from strength to strength,” he mentioned.
“But we have to be realistic about the militarisation within the region. Under the AUKUS deal there will be four nuclear-powered submarines based in our waters from 2027.
“So that tells you a lot about what the Americans see, what NATO sees. They don’t start moving their significant assets … unless they’re very concerned about what the next few years might hold.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
