Australia is reportedly set to boost its missile defence capabilities after the recent Chinese test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the South Pacific, which has raised “significant concerns” in Canberra as the Indo-Pacific region enters a “missile age”.
In a speech on Wednesday, Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy was quoted as saying by international news agencies […] that his country plans to increase its missile defence and long-range strike capabilities. Conroy added that Australia will cooperate with its security partners – the United States (US), Japan, and South Korea – on issues of regional stability.
Why does Australia need more missiles?
“Why do we need more missiles?,” posing this question, Conroy answered before the National Press Club in Canberra that “strategic competition” between the US and China “is a primary feature of Australia’s security environment”.
Conroy added that that competition is “at its sharpest in our region”, the Indo-Pacific, which is on the cusp of a new missile age, where missiles will also serve as “tools of coercion”.
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Australians have accepted the fact that Australia has been within striking range of the PLAN missiles for some time now. This latest test merely confirms the PRC’s desire to include land-based long range strike capabilities to its arsenal. It doesn’t change the strategic outlook all that much. An effective ABM system doesn’t care (figurative) where the missiles are launched from.
