At the Feb. 25 event in Canberra, Turnbull and Payne also announced that the government intends to restore defense spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2020/2021, three years earlier than pledged when the Liberals gained power in 2013.
In addition, the permanent Australian Defence Force workforce will increase to around 62,400 over the next decade, an increase of about 4,800 that would mark its largest size since 1993.
“The White Paper recognizes Australia’s security and prosperity is directly tied to the stability of our region and to the maintenance of a stable, rules-based global order,” the prime minister and defence minister said in a joint statement.
“In the period to 2035, Australia will have greater opportunities for prosperity and development but it will also face greater uncertainty. We need to be prepared. The White Paper positions Defence to respond to a broader range of security threats to Australians at home and abroad.”
Also released were a Defence Industry Policy Statement (DIPS) and a Defence Integrated Investment Program (IIP), which Payne described as a fully costed program
“For the first time, the IIP brings together all capability-related investment including new weapons, platforms, infrastructure and science and technology,” she said.
Acquisition programs in the IIP include 12 conventionally powered submarines, nine frigates, two large underway replenishment ships and 12 offshore patrol vessels for the Royal Australian Navy. The Frigates, OPVs (and possibly the submarines) will form part of the Turnbull government’s previously announced continuous naval shipbuilding program in Australia.
The Royal Australian Air Force is to get four additional P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and three more are to be ordered in the early years of the next decade, bringing the total on contract to 15. It will also get seven MQ-4C Triton unmanned maritime surveillance systems around 2020/2021 and two additional KC-30A multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) aircraft in the future, to build a fleet of nine aircraft.
Other capabilities to be acquired include an armed medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAS system
and up to five Gulfstream G550 ISREW platforms.
The Australian Army will get a new medium range ground-based air defense (GBAD) system, a long-range rocket artillery system, three additional CH-47F Chinook helicopters, new weapons and a fleet of light air-transportable utility helicopters for Special Forces Operations.
The big loser however is Army’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) which will be withdrawn in the middle of the next decade and replaced by a new capability which may include UAVs as well as helicopters.
Platforms to be significantly upgraded include the RAN’s logistics support ship, HMAS Choules (L100) and the Army’s M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks. The Collins submarine will also undergo a capability enhancement program to ensure Australia has a viable sovereign submarine capability until the new boats come online starting in the early 2030s.
Other capabilities to be considered in the future include more heavy airlift aircraft, long-range aeromedical evacuation (AME) and combat search and rescue (CSAR) platforms.
Peter Jennings, an executive director with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute describes the white paper as a ‘good posture.’
“A wide brown land needs a big, big defence policy and Australia has received that very thing with this morning’s delivery of the 2016 Defence White Paper,” he wrote in ASPI’s The Strategist blog, adding: “The 2016 White Paper largely lives up to its self-made claim to be ‘deliberate, rigorous and methodical.
“This is a document that sets out a clear strategy, a logically articulated force structure and — can you believe it — a plausible funding plan.”
The document suite has also been well-received by the Australian defense industry, with the national spokesman for the Australian Made Defence campaign welcoming the certainty they promise.
“For the first time ever, the Defence White Paper is accompanied by a fully costed, Integrated Investment Program that gives industry certainty into the future – this is certainty the defense industry hasn’t had in decades,” Burns said. “The strong commitment to defense demonstrated in this morning's announcement is a huge positive for industry and its workforce that have been doing it tough for years."
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