Australia pours billions into missile procurement amidst global shortages

AVALON, Australia - The Ukraine war and increased European defence spending are likely to slow Australias plans to develop its own missile components capability as it pushes ahead with a multibillion-dollar effort to acquire long-range strike missiles.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged A$74 billion ($47 billion) last year for missile acquisition including A$21 billion to establish a Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise in Australia, as his Labor government reshaped the countrys defence strategy to respond to Chinas military build-up.

Hedging against global supply issues, Australia signed a flurry of orders with U.S. and European defence companies, including Lockheed Martin, Kongsberg and Raytheon.

Lockheed Martin President for Missiles and Fire Control Tim Cahill said that the U.S. company was in discussions with Australia on long term and short term solutions for hypersonic missiles, which Australia wants to defend its northern borders.

Long range strike and hypersonics - long range fast strike and very survivable strike - is clearly a priority, Cahill said in an interview at this weeks Avalon Air Show.

Gathered at the event in the southern state of Victoria, defence executives said global missile component shortages and high demand, and the need to improve the capacity of Australian suppliers, meant Australian components would only gradually be built into local production.

Norways Kongsberg plans to have a common supply chain between Europe, the United States and the Indo Pacific when new factories in Australia and the United States open, with the workload distributed across the facilities, said its Executive Vice President of Missiles amp; Space Oyvind Kolset.

Of course the demand is extremely high now, its a challenge to ramp up at the rate we are doing now, but at least we have worked on this for a number of years, Kolset said, referring to missile production for the