2025-03-22
The Greens today launched a policy that will reallocate $4 billion from savings within the Defence budget towards domestic production capabilities of uncrewed marine and aerial vehicles as well as missiles, strictly for defensive purposes to ensure the defence of Australia without relying on the US and foreign arms companies.
Currently, the Australian Defence Force is designed to work interoperably with the US military, not to defend Australia. This shows in Defence’s procurement. Purchasing a low quantity of large, highly technical, and overwhelmingly US equipment has become the norm, for example, Black Hawks, M1A2 tanks and, of course, the Virginia class nuclear submarines. The Greens will seek to end these projects.
$2.4 billion will be saved from cancelling the M1A2 tanks and the Black Hawk projects. The utility of the M1A2 is in large-scale land engagement, such as the recent conflicts in the Middle East. Unless there is an acceptance that Australia’s military should be fighting in conflicts in the Middle East, Asian mainland or Europe, the need for these tanks is unclear.
The Black Hawk is a 50-year-old design with the US phasing into a new type. This alone will cause supply issues and highlight the overreliance on US technology. Black Hawks are also very expensive when compared to other utility helicopters. There are other less expensive and better options. The remaining money for reallocation will come from the estimated spending of $375 billion on AUKUS.
The reallocation is going towards sovereign manufacturing capabilities of uncrewed naval and aerial vehicles as well as medium-range and intermediate-range missiles, for strictly defensive purposes only.
Importantly, these will be genuinely sovereign capabilities, not merely purchases from the US or local assembly lines of imported components.
Senator David Shoebridge, Greens Spokesperson for Defence, said: “For decades, the major parties have based Australia’s defence policy on dependence and integration with the US military. This was a mistake.
“Our defence policy shouldn’t be based on Donald Trump coming to our rescue.
“Australia cannot continue to waste money on multi-billion dollar US weapons platforms, designed not to defend Australia but supplement Donald Trump’s military.
“M1A2 Tanks and the Black Hawks share a lot of the same issues. They are both supplied by the US with little to no sovereign input, are expensive and outdated. Like AUKUS, this equipment is much more about signalling our loyalty to the US than defending Australia.
“There are two obvious lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Low-cost defence equipment, such as drones that can be produced locally and at scale, are effective at territorial defence, and you cannot trust the US, especially under Trump.
“To seriously decouple the ADF from the US and to proudly take an independent foreign policy, we need to develop sufficient sovereign capabilities. Unlike AUKUS though, these capabilities should be to defend Australia, not threaten our neighbours.
“In defence, what you buy and produce indicates your policy intent far more clearly than your media spin. What Liberal and Labor are screaming with their purchases is an unquestioning loyalty to the US and complete contracting out of our foreign policy to Washington.
“Australia’s most significant strategic asset is our relative geographical isolation. The major parties have made that into a liability by signing us up to US force projection, making distance an obstacle to overcome not an asset to work with.
“Australia needs to have a defence force that is about that, defending ourselves, not threatening our neighbours.
“If Australia wants an independent foreign policy and to detach ourselves from Donald Trump, we need to have a clear alternative. The major parties aren’t interested in that, the Greens are.”