(Bloomberg) -- Australia will invest A$21 billion ($14 billion) over a decade to ramp up domestic missile and munitions manufacturing, in the latest step by the center-left Labor government to develop a long-range strike capability in the face of a regional arms race.
Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy announced the new program on Wednesday to produce weapons in Australia “at scale.” This includes construction of a new plant for manufacturing 155mm M795 artillery ammunition and a facility to build guided multiple launch rocket systems in Australia in partnership with Lockheed Martin Corp.
Australia now stands at the “cusp of a new Indo-Pacific missile age,” Conroy said in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra.
“As well as acquiring more missiles, more rapidly from our partners, we need to build a new Australian guided weapons manufacturing industry,” he said. “The Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise – known as GWEO – is our answer to protecting Australia in the missile age.”
By the end of the decade, Australia will have the capability to produce as many as 4,000 rocket systems annually as well as potentially 100,000 artillery rounds.
The announcement is the latest step by Canberra to shift the nation’s military posture toward improving long-range attack and area denial capabilities.
Conroy’s speech comes just over a week after Australia announced it intended to purchase A$7 billion worth of US missiles, including the Standard Missile Block IIIC and Standard Missile-6. At the time, Conroy described them as the “most advanced air and missile defense weapons in the world.”
According to the 2024 GWEO plan, which was released on Wednesday, the new long-range strike capabilities will improve the range of the Australian navy from 200 kilometers (124 miles) to as much as 2,500 kilometers.
(Updates after Minister Conroy’s speech)
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