US will help Australia develop guided missiles by 2025; cooperate with India for Indo-Pacific security

The United States will help Australia to produce guided multiple-launch rocket systems by 2025, said the American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on Saturday (July 29). The statement comes after the two-day Canberra-Washington meeting which focused on regional security and military cooperation where the officials also pledged to engage with China but also oppose it if needed.

US-Australia meetings in Brisbane

Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are in the Australian state of Queensland for the annual Australia-US ministerial dialogue (AUSMIN), with their Australian counterparts Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

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“We are pursuing several mutually beneficial initiatives with Australia's defence industry, and these include a commitment to help Australia produce guided multiple launch rocket systems...by 2025,” said Austin, during a press conference.

He added that Washington is also accelerating Canberra’s priority munitions through a streamlined acquisition process.

Similarly, Marles also said that Australia “hopes to see manufacturing of missiles commenced in Australia in two years’ time”. He added, “We are really pleased with the steps that we are taking in respect of establishing a guided weapons and explosive ordnance enterprise in this country.”

In line with this project, Australia will develop guided multiple-launch rocket systems, or GMLRS which the Pentagon chief said would help the US “sharpen our technological edge and strengthen our defence industrial base”.

This comes as Washington will help Canberra build a fledgling domestic missile industry nearly from the ground up while also securing a reliable pipeline for its own armed forces down the track.

There would also be an “increased tempo of visits from American nuclear-powered submarines to our waters” as a part of the agreement, said the Australian defence minister.

This also comes months after the two countries signed the AUKUS security treaty, a landmark military pact where Australia will develop its own nuclear-powered submarines, the progress of which was also discussed during the meetings that concluded on Saturday.

US about China and the Indo-Pacific

Meanwhile, Blinken spoke about how the “chief” among the high-profile talks with Australia was a shared commitment to a free and secure Indo-Pacific region.

“We’re doing that in part by engaging China, but also as necessary opposing its efforts to disrupt freedom of navigation overflight in the south and east China seas, to upend the status quo that’s preserved peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, to pressure countries through economic coercion,” said Washington’s top diplomat.

After the two-day talks in Brisbane, Marles and Austin were set to travel to north Queensland for the Talisman Sabre war games where Australian and US military along with 11 other nations were to take part.

However, they have since been put on hold after an Australian military helicopter participating in the exercises crashed into the ocean, with at least four people onboard feared dead.

Washington-Canberra cooperation with India

The two countries also reaffirmed their commitment to enhance interoperability between the militaries of the Pacific through a range of exercises and welcomed Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga’s participation in the Talisman Sabre exercise for the first time.

Meanwhile, India, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines were also invited as inaugural observers, reported the Indian media, citing a fact sheet released by the US Department of Defence.

(With inputs from agencies)

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