SYDNEY - Australia will begin co-manufacturing guided weapons with the United States next year to boost supplies for allies in the region and increase the US military presence in the country, including bomber aircraft, the two countries said.
Australia and the United States are already working to upgrade air bases in northern and western Australia, which are the closest to potential flashpoints with China in the South China Sea.
After the annual AUSMIN talks in Annapolis, Maryland, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there would be an increase in the presence of rotational US forces in Australia.
“This will mean more maritime patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft operating from bases across northern Australia. It will also mean more frequent rotational bomber deployments,” he said.
Austin said the two allies faced shared security challenges including “coercive behaviour” by China.
A joint statement released after the talks expressed concern over Chinese military activity around Taiwan, and China’s excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea.
They “noted grave concern about China’s dangerous and escalatory behavior toward Philippine vessels lawfully operating within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone”.
China on Wednesday carried out a combat patrol to test “strike capabilities” near Scarborough Shoal, an area also claimed by the Philippines.
Beijing has continued to press its claims to almost the entire South China Sea despite an international tribunal ruling in 2016 that its assertion has no legal basis.
Scarborough Shoal is 240 kilometres west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.
China in 2012 used coastguard vessels to take control of the shoal, a triangular chain of reefs and rocks that are part of a rich fishing ground and had long been used by Filipino fishermen as a safe harbour.
On Wednesday, the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said it had “organised a joint combat patrol in the sea and airspace” near the area.
The manoeuvres tested “the reconnaissance and early warning, rapid mobility, and joint strike capabilities of theatre troops”, Beijing said.
There are no US military bases in Australia, but the northern city of Darwin hosts a US Marine Rotational Force six months of each year and the US is building facilities for its marines and visiting air squadrons within Australian bases.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said the presence of US forces in Australia contributed to deterrence in the region, adding that there would be closer collaboration on guided weapons manufacture in Australia.
Australia will begin co-manufacturing guided missiles next year, including the guided multiple launch rocket systems (GMLRS) used in Ukraine.
Australia is also testing a hypersonic attack cruise missile (HACM) with the US, which Canberra said it would consider fielding as its first hypersonic weapon for fighter jets.
“The presence of American force posture in our nation provides an enormous opportunity to work with our neighbours in the region,” Marles said.
Japan would increase exercises with US marines in Darwin, while Australia and the US would hold regular exercises in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, the statement said.
The statement mentioned Australia’s strategic Indian Ocean territory, Cocos Islands, for the first time, saying the United States welcomed Australia’s planned infrastructure upgrades there and supported Australia’s completion of this work.
The Cocos Islands, with a population of 600, sits 3,000km west of the Australian mainland and is described by the Australian Defence Force as key to its maritime surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean, where China is increasing submarine activity.
Australia has said it will start construction on an expanded airfield on the island this year, to carry heavier military aircraft, including the submarine-hunting P-8A Poseidon.