Australia Must Increase Its De Essay, Research Paper
Australia Must Increase Its Defence
As we enter the twenty-first century we can see that states all over the universe spend big sums of money on their defense mechanism. The United States of America entirely spends around $ 450 billion yearly on defense mechanism ( pg 49, Defence Review 2000 ) . This essay examines the three Australian armed forces, viz. the naval forces, the air force and the military to see what improvements they require, in order to protect themselves in the new century. It besides discusses states that could be possible menaces to it in the hereafter and stairss required to be taken by the Australian authorities to get the better of these menaces.
The Australian maritime forces include pigboats, aircraft, surface ships and their choppers. In all there are nine major war vessels, out of which seven ships are normally available for operations and two of them are by and large in care on a circulation footing ( Pg 40, Defence Review 2000 ) . These ships have really limited defense mechanisms against the new anti-ship missiles that have been acquired in neighboring states such as China and Japan, the defensive capablenesss on these ships were designed in the late 80 s and are no longer really effectual against modern engineerings ( Pg 40, Defence Review 2000 ) . Australian ships presently do non hold the ability to hit down assailing aircraft at long distances ( Pg 40, Defence Review 2000 ) . To forestall exposure from enemy aircraft this ability is a necessity for an island state such as Australia. However this capableness is expensive and the current defense mechanism budget can non afford it. Another of import concern is the older guided missile frigates, which reach the terminal of their lives around 2013 ( Pg 40, Defence Review 2000 ) . An built-in constituent of the naval forces is its undersea fleet, its capablenesss are now depleted due to jobs in the new Collins category boats, merely one of the old Oberon pigboat is still in service ( Pg 40, Defence Review 2000 ) . The Collins category pigboats were particularly designed and built for Australia s unique strategic demands such as long open-ocean theodolites and hard runing countries in shoal ( Pg 42, Defence Review 2000 ) . However last twelvemonth it was found that the pigboats did non execute at the degrees required because of a scope of contract deficits, design lacks, inordinate noise signature and an unequal information processing system ( The Independent Prescott study, June 1999 ) . This leaves the Australian continent with a individual pigboat that is old and has outdated engineering ; it surely can non make much to protect the state at sea in the instance of a war. The above jobs in the Australian naval forces demand to be addressed every bit shortly as possible.
The Australian air force is chiefly made up of two built-in parts, viz. air combat and the work stoppage force ( Pg 36 Defence Review 2000 ) . The air combat is based on a fleet of 71 F/A-18 aircraft with radio detection and rangings, missiles and other arms systems, supported by a figure of air bases across northern Australia ( Pg 36 Defence Review 2000 ) . In any air combat the cardinal strengths are the accomplishments of the pilots and other forces who operate and support the aircraft, nevertheless the air crew is limited. This is a affair of concern-without proper air crew combat aircrafts serve no intent ( Pg 36, Defence Review 2000 ) . The F/A-18 aircraft were bought in the 1980s, at which point of clip they could get the better of any hostile air force runing in Australia s close part, but in the 1990 s more capable aircraft and air-to-air missiles have entered service in other Southeast Asiatic states ( Pg 36, Defence Review 2000 ) . Enemy missiles can observe Australian aircraft before they can observe the enemy aircraft, and the enemy can fire their missiles foremost, within a few old ages the Australian air force will non be able to run against such units in front-line air-combat functions at an acceptable degree of hazard to its pilots and aircrafts ( Pg 36 Defence reappraisal 2000 ) . In add-on to that 15 old ages of service is get downing to take its toll on the airframes and marks of weariness can be noticed ( www.dsto.defence.gov.au/coporate/publicity/brochures/dividends4.html ) . These fighter planes can non las
T forever and demand to be upgraded or perchance even changed so as to turn out effectual in a war. The musculus of the Australian work stoppage force are 35 F-111 long-range bombers, that carry a significant arms burden and can present a burden of preciseness guided arms ( www.defence.gov.au ) . Due to the deficiency of support it is difficult to keep these bombers and merely about six of them can be kept on a ready qui vive ( www.defence.gov.au ) .
The Australian ground forces chiefly consists of two foot brigades with about three 1000 forces ( Pg 43 Defence Review 2000 ) . Despite of good developing an ground forces that is so little can non perchance take on a larger conventional ground forces, armed with heavy firepower. With a little defense mechanism budget it is difficult to prolong an ground forces. The Australian land force besides has armored combat vehicles, armoured reconnaissance, mechanised foot but these are in limited Numberss.
Compared to other states busying large land multitudes such as China and America the Australian defense mechanism outgo is negligible. As mentioned earlier the United States spends about $ 450 billion on its defense mechanism yearly, where as China spends about about $ 50 billion ( www.chinfo.mil ) . China and Singapore spend about 4 % of their gross domestic merchandise on defense mechanism, where as Australia spends merely 1.8 % of its GDP on defense mechanism ( Xinhua News Agency ) . Japan spends over $ 40 billion on its defense mechanism as compared to the $ 10 billion that Australia spends ( Aviation Week and Space Technology ) . China has a population of about 2 billion and India of over a billion ( www.globalstatistics.com ) A big population denseness in Asiatic states puts more force per unit area upon the land for resources, and there is a rise in poorness. This draws the attending of the people elsewhere in order to carry through their basic demands. Australia is a extremely inviting topographic point for such states because of the low population denseness ; to guarantee safety from high population states such as these Australia demands to keep a strong military force.
America has an air force that is about a 100 times that of the RAAF. The American air force consists of 4108 operational aircraft as compared to the 40 Australian operational aircraft ( America s Armed Forces: A History, James Morris ) . The American naval forces consists of 318 surface ships and over a 100 atomic pigboats presently in active service, the ground forces has over 1 million forces ( www.armytimes.com ) . Even though the American population is well larger than Australia, it still has a big land mass that it needs to protect for which it needs a really strong military. In a recent article Australian Defence curate John Moore claims that the United States will ever come to Australia s assistance but Australia needs to keep its ain defense mechanism to be autonomous in regional struggles such as East Timor ( The Australian ) . Defence Secretary William Cohen mentioned that in instance of a full fledged onslaught on Australia it could take American forces such as large aircraft bearers up to two yearss to make the country, which might be excessively late ( Time Magazine, September 1998 ) .
Harmonizing to Defence Secretary Allan Hawke Australia s military disbursement is at its lowest since 1939 and needs to be well increased in order to update aging equipment ( Aviation Week and Space Technology ) . Alan Dupont, manager of Asia-Pacific security at Australia s National University in Canberra maintains that public support is important to beef up Australian defense mechanism forces. In a recent argument Prime Minister John Howard said, I do seek to do the point that in footings of national precedences, I believe that in the old ages in forepart of us, defense mechanism will necessitate to bulk larger that it has over the past few old ages. ( Xinhua ( China ) ) .
From the information above we can garner that Australia is surely missing in its defense mechanism. It needs to better its air force, navy and significantly increase the size of the land force. Australia needs to be cognizant of possible menaces from Southeast Asiatic states and take stairss to forestall these menaces from going a world. It can non depend on the United States to move like its large brother, alternatively, it needs to be autonomous. Australia needs a stronger military force!
344
