Australia will spend $7 billion buying “the best air defence missiles in the world”, greatly improving the medium and long-range strike capability of the Navy.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy unveiled the purchase of Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC (SM-2) and Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) from the United States during a visit to Washington this morning.
“We live in the missile age,” he said.
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“We live in the greatest arms race in our region since 1945, with a high degree of strategic uncertainty.”
The state-of-the-art missiles will be progressively rolled out across the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) Hobart-class destroyers and Hunter-class frigates.
In August, Australia became the first country outside the US to test fire an SM-6 during an exercise near Hawaii.
The SM-2 has a range of 160km and the SM-6 500km, providing extended defence capabilities against air and missile threats.
Conroy said they would also provide an offensive anti-ship capability and for the first time allow the RAN to intercept ballistic missiles.
“We live in an age where lots of countries in our region are investing in anti-ship missiles and investing in aircraft to deliver them, so these missiles are designed to defeat that,” the minister told reporters.
The announcement comes after the Albanese government’s decision to spend $850 million setting up a factory in Newcastle to manufacture missiles in partnership with Norwegian defence giant Kongsberg.
The facility will be the first outside of Norway to make and service Naval Strike Missiles and Joint Strike Missiles.