The bill for 12 new submarines, doubling the size of the existing fleet, is perhaps the most surprising element.
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Nine percent of the $195 billion that will be spent over the next decade on defence capability projects will go towards hi-tech areas of intelligence, electronic warfare, space and cyber capabilities. Capital investment will rise from 29% of the defence budget in 2016-17 to 39% in 2025-26. While China will not match the global strategic weight of the USA, the growth of its power including its military modernisation means it will have a major impact on the region’s stability to 2035.
“Obviously the South China Sea is a much bigger issue now than it was in 2009 or even in 2013”, a senior Defence official toldThe Australian.
“This White Paper sets out how we can protect our interests in our region and across the globe”, she said.
The white paper will reportedly also detail the government’s position on growing diplomatic tensions in the South China Sea, as Beijing continues its rapid military expansion in the contested waterway.
According to media reports, the Australian government is increasingly anxious about China’s influence in our region.
Mr Turnbull said yesterday it would help drive the government’s innovation agenda through technological advances. “We recognise that Australia’s strategic environment is the most dynamic and challenging one that we have faced in peace time”.
But it disputes Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s claim that defence spending under Labor reached the lowest percentage of gross domestic product since the eve of World War II.
He said the nation’s security depended on a strong defence industry.
The White Paper also outlines an updating of information and communications technology (ICT), which the defence minister described as “retro” at the launch of the paper, with some parts of defence using versions of Microsoft Windows older than some of the people in the room. But he noted that it had not promised to build the submarines in South Australia.
USA ambassador John Berry said the white paper “represents a well-considered, comprehensive approach to addressing evolving security challenges of the coming decades”.
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Defence minister Marise Payne called it “the largest single rebalance… in a generation”.
