Two important military developments recently should give China pause for thought. The first one is the announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of a $1.1 billion upgrade to the Royal Australian Air Force base at Tindal, which is about 300 kilometres south of Darwin, to lengthen the runway so that U.S. B-52 strategic bombers as well as our own KC-30 air-to-air refuelling aircraft can operate from there.
The second development is the announcement by the U.S. State Department that Australia has been cleared, at a cost of about $1.4 billion, to purchase 200 AGM-158C long-range anti-ship missiles (LRASM), which can be fired from our F/A-18 Super Hornets and the F-35s when they are delivered.
(Here's more on the LRASM.)
For a distant medium power with a small army, this approach makes sense as I've long held:
Australia is a low-population island democracy far from traditional and new "Western" states. It needs submarines and air power as the primary means of keeping enemies away from the continent. That and a small but good ground force capable of working with allies who can reach them are needed to leverage foreign--especially American--help. That's basically what I noted over ten years ago[.]
If China thinks that A2/AD doesn't apply to them, they're wrong.
And as the pivot point in INDOPACOM between the Indian and Pacific oceans, holding enemies away is a useful objective for Australia to keep allies spanning that expanse knit together.
And of course, being able to keep China away from Australia, especially to the east, allows American reinforcements to arrive--such as at Tindal--without having to fight our way through Chinese forces.
It all makes perfect sense.
UPDATE: Related news:
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has further validated its ability to conduct mid-intensity, high-end warfighting operations with the completion of Fleet Certification Period 2020 (FCP20) on 6 March.
The naval drills were conducted over three weeks off the coasts of Victoria and Tasmania, and tested the service’s ability to conduct warfighting operations that are centred around its Canberra-class amphibious assault ships.
Good.
