Australia will more than double its defense budget over the next three years under plans that will turn the country into one of the world's major military powers.
The government in Canberra has revealed it intends to increase overall spending by US$38.5 billion over the next 10 years.
The proposal highlights the country's determination to position itself as a key ally of Washington in conflicts around the world, and could place Australia behind Japan and Saudi Arabia as the biggest military spender outside Europe and the UN security council.
Describing the plan as a "quantum leap forward" for the Australian defense force, the defense minister, Robert Hill, said involvement in the Middle East, East Timor and the Solomon Islands made it more difficult for the military to meet its targets.
"The unprecedented level of recent deployments indicates that our forces must adapt to a broad range of operational demands in widely varied environments," he said.
In 2006, the highest-spending period of the plan, additional spending is likely to be pushed as high as US$14.7 billion -- more than doubling the existing sum. The final cost over the lifetime of the plan is likely to be even greater, as the paper does not mention Australia's promised involvement in America's "son of star wars" national missile defense system.
Opposition defense critic Chris Evans said that cost overruns detailed in the paper indicated that the final bill would be larger than current estimates.
"The problem with the defense capability plan has never been the plan itself. It has always been with the government's ability to deliver new capabilities on time and on budget," he said.
Analysts believe such overruns could push the total cost to US$47.6 billion.
Border security is a key priority for Canberra, which fears terrorist activity in its neighbor Indonesia, and the arrival of refugee boats on its northern shores. The budget includes more than US$733 million to be spent on a squadron of 10 unmanned aerial surveillance aircraft, US$3.48 billion for maritime patrol aircraft and a US$733 million upgrade of electronic surveillance equipment covering northern Australia and Indonesia.
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