CANBERRA (HRNW) — Australia has accelerated plans to buy long-range strike missiles years ahead of schedule because of growing threats posed by Russia and China.
Defense Minister Peter Dutton said Tuesday the accelerated rearming of fighter jets and warships would cost 3.5 billion Australian dollars ($2.6 billion) and increase Australia’s deterrence to potential adversaries.
“There was a working assumption that an act of aggression by China toward Taiwan might take place in the 2040s. I think that timeline now has been dramatically compressed,” Dutton told Seven Network television.
“When we look at what’s happened in the Ukraine, there is the prospect of Russian going into Poland or somewhere else in Europe. That would be a repeat of the 1930s and that’s not something that we should allow to happen,” Dutton added, referring to the beginning of World War II.
Under a revised timetable, FA-18F Super Hornet fighter jets would be armed with improved U.S.-manufactured air-to-surface missiles by 2024, three years earlier than planned.
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