Australia is to invest A$7 billion (US$5.18 billion) to develop and buy high-tech US drones for joint military operations and to monitor waters including the South China Sea, it said yesterday.
Canberra has been embarking on its largest peacetime naval investment through a shipbuilding strategy that includes new submarines, offshore patrol vessels and frigates to shore up its defense capabilities.
As part of this, the government is to spend A$1.4 billion to buy the first of six MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance drones, with the aircraft to enter service from the middle of 2023, complementing seven P-8A Poseidon aircraft currently in use.
Photo: AFP
“Together these aircraft will enhance our anti-submarine warfare and maritime strike capability, as well as our search and rescue capability,” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a statement. “This investment will protect our borders and make our region more secure.”
The drones — high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft that can support missions for up to 24 hours and provide a 360-degree view of their surroundings for more than 2,000 nautical miles (3,704km) — are to replace the AP-3C Orion spy plane.
“It gives us enormous capabilities in surveillance and reconnaissance,” Australian Minister for the Defense Industry Christopher Pyne told Sky News, adding that the total cost was about A$7 billion.
“Australia’s responsible for about 10 percent of the world’s surface into the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, down to Antarctica up into the South China Sea,” he said.
The drones would be used to monitor who was in Australian waters, other countries’ naval vessels, for people-smuggling and illegal fishing, he said, adding that the uncrewed systems would also continue Australia’s surveillance of the South China Sea.
“Australia insists on its right to be able to travel through the South China Sea, in international waters as we have always done, whether it is with surface ships or aircraft,” Pyne said.
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