3 days ago
Australia's defence lags behind with not enough munitions to 'last a week' if attacked, as the US puts its house in order
The West's race to build a better equipped defence force has exposed the gaping holes that many nations face with an almost non-existent manufacturing base and a lack of know-how to get the jobs done.
President Trump has taken the reins of the US economy at the eleventh hour and may have just saved it in time to re-establish the workforce and reboot their economy.
From computer chip manufacturing, rare-earth refining to ship building, the essentials are back on the table in the US to help aid their workforce security and to stave off their reliance on Chinese goods.
When it comes to defence manufacturing, the US are still world leaders in weapons exports, supplying munitions, missile defence, and warplanes.
According to a report by POLTICO: 'European NATO members have become even more dependent on the US', with arms imports up 155 per cent in the four years leading to 2024 compared to 2015 to 2019 figures.
However, the road is not all smooth sailing for US arms manufacturing.
After decades of handing over key manufacturing to Japan and China over the last four years, the US is now struggling to remain the military superpower that it has been since the end of World War II.
According to the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, a major conflict with China (involving Tawain) would see US munitions stockpiles run out faster than they can be replaced, which include long-range precision-guided munitions.
Furthermore, the 'rate at which China has been acquiring high-end weapons systems and equipment is five to six times faster than the United States'.
To gauge how depleted US industry sectors are these days, a US naval base in the State of Connecticut saw one submarine built every two weeks during WWII.
Now it is struggling to find the thousands of workers needed to undertake submarine building with the new Virginia Class nuclear-powered attack submarines built at a rate of 1.2 per year.
The US need to be building at a rate of 2.3 submarines per year to meet US requirements and to supply Australia with the three nuclear submarines promised via the AUKUS trilateral partnerships.
Interestingly, in an ABC 4 Corners episode 'Submerged', Republican Congressman Robert Witman points to major issues in putting the workforce back together post Covid, whereas China has emerged more resilient.
Now let us look at where Australia sits with its military manufacturing and the broader manufacturing environment.
Pointing a lens at the state of Australia's manufacturing base, the picture is a lot worse.
According to Strategic Analysis Australia, the 'OECD has placed Australia last among its members for manufacturing'.
You read correctly, Australia rates last for its manufacturing output among all of the OECD nations.
On top of that, Australian manufacturing is also rated as low complexity, in that there is little in the way of value-added product that is sought after across broad sectors.
The irony is that here in Australia and the US, there are manufacturers who are desperate to hire more workers, but the take-up in some industries is low.
And the ability for governments and educators to find students interested in trades and see them through a full apprenticeship is a demand not met.
Australia's military exports account for 0.6 per cent of global share.
Apart from integration systems and parts, and a small boat building capability, Australia's defence industry has dwindled, so much so that it has all but died away, and only now is somewhat being reborn and re-imagined.
There are new 'Ghost Bat' drones designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia which is a salient addition to the landscape of national defence, as well as a fledgling homemade missile defence system manufacturing in Australia, which again, is all in its infancy.
Most analysts agree that Australia's defences would not last long against a significant attack and that our munitions would not last much longer than a week.
While countries such as Germany, the Republic of Korea, and Japan do have solid defence manufacturing, the one nation out-manufacturing them all is of course, China.
Australia's abilities to manufacture defence hardware compared to China's and the US is laughable.
One has to ask if world dominated manufacturing in China has been their strategic plan over the last 30 to 40 years and if so, they have played it very well.
The fact that manufacturing in Australia, the US and many European nations has been handed over blindly and now that national security has come to the fore, it has exposed gaping holes in air land and sea capabilities as they now try to re-establish their various manufacturing sectors.
With the right diplomatic approach, and the West's ability to wield strength, superior intelligence and strategy, the collision course that the East and West is on may be avoided.
Australia and the West need to find enough national solidarity to back the things they do best in manufacturing, to ensure they are not so reliant on other nations who have strong ambitions to bring them to their knees.
Robert Weir is a freelance journalist whose work has also been published in The Spectator Australia. He enjoys writing political, lifestyle, and environmental stories as well as film reviews
