Billion-dollar boost to build, upgrade defence vehicles
More than $1 billion will be spent on defense equipment as Australia continues to support its military.
The federal government will spend $750 million with arms company Thales Australia to build 268 new Bushmasters for the Australian Defense Force at the manufacturer’s Bendigo facility over the next seven years.
This announcement is expected to support the protection of 300 jobs in the region, while another $450 million allocated for the upgrade of Hawkei protected mobility vehicles and the defense force’s truck capacity will also support approximately 150 jobs for Thales in Brisbane.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said it was “great news” for regional Victoria.
“The Australian-made Bushmaster and Hawkei are recognized as world-leading protected mobility vehicles that support not only the Australian Defense Force but also the defense forces of our international partners,” he said.
The Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle was used primarily for defense against Russian invasion after Australia gifted more than 100 vehicles to Ukraine.
But it was also exported to Fiji, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand, England, Indonesia and the Netherlands, and was used in conflicts such as the Iraq War, the Afghanistan war and the Syrian Civil War.
This announcement follows a series of other commitments to increase Australia’s defense spending.
The federal government on Tuesday announced it will spend as much as $7 billion on counter-drone systems over the next decade; This includes millions of dollars in “Star Wars-like” laser technology powerful enough to burn steel.
Australia’s 2026 National Defense Strategy, announced in mid-April, allocated an extra $53 billion in funding for the next decade.
The move will increase Australia’s defense spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2035; The move comes after the United States pressured its allies to increase spending to 3.5 percent of GDP, compared to the previous estimate of 2.3 percent.
Australia’s largest peacetime defense spending increase is necessary because Australia faces the most “complex and threatening” strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War, according to Mr Marles.
