By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia said it was boosting its missile defence capability amid "significant concerns" about China's test of an ICBM in the South Pacific, and will bolster weapons stockpiles and exports to security partners as the region enters a new "missile age".
Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said in a speech on Wednesday that Australia was increasing its missile defence and long-range strike capability, and would cooperate with security partners 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," he told the National Press Club in Canberra.
China test fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in September that travelled over 11,000km to land in the Pacific Ocean to Australia's north-east.
Conroy said the Indo Pacific was on the cusp of a new missile age, where missiles are also "tools of coercion".
"We expressed significant concern about that ballistic missile test, especially its entry into the South Pacific given the Treaty of Rarotonga that says the Pacific should be a nuclear weapons free zone," he told reporters in response to a question.
Australia was deploying SM-6 missiles on its navy destroyer fleet to provide ballistic missile defence, he added.
Earlier this month, Australia announced a A$7 billion deal with the United States to acquire SM-2 IIIC and Raytheon SM-6 long-range missiles for its navy.
Australia has previously said it would spend A$74 billion ($49 billion) on missile acquisition and missile defence over the next decade, including A$21 billion to fund the Australian Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise, a new domestic manufacturing capability.
"We must show potential adversaries that hostile acts against Australia would not succeed and could not be sustained if conflict were protracted," Conroy said in the speech.
Australia will spend A$316 million to establish local manufacture of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS), in partnership with Lockheed Martin , to produce the rapidly deployable, surface-to-surface weapons for export, from 2029.
The factory will be capable of producing 4,000 GMLRS a year, or a quarter of current global production, Conroy said.
France's Thales will establish Australian manufacturing of 155mm M795 artillery ammunition, used in howitzers, at an Australian government-owned munitions facility in the small Victorian city of Benalla.
It will be the first dedicated forge outside of the U.S., with production starting in 2028, and the capacity to scale up to produce 100,000 rounds a year.
The war in Ukraine was using 10,000 rounds of 155-millimetre artillery shells a day last year, outstripping European production, he said.
"In a world marked by supply chain disruption and strategic fragility, Australia needs not only to acquire more missiles, but to make more here at home," he said.
In August, Australia said it would jointly manufacture long-range Naval Strike Missiles and Joint Strike Missiles with Norway's Kongsberg Defence in the city of Newcastle on Australia's eastern coast, the only site outside of Norway.
Australia's navy will also have Tomahawk missiles, with a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), by the end of the year, increasing the fleet's weapons range 10-fold.
($1 = 1.5228 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
