Townsville within striking distance
China has ‘ring range’ over key ADF facilities, report warns
A MAP war gaming potential threats from China’s landbased missile arsenal showing strikes across two thirds of Australia forms part of a dramatic submission to the highly anticipated Defence Strategic Review.
The 33-page document put together by former analysts from Defence and the Rand Corporation paints a stark picture as it argues for Australia’s future military bases, stockpiles and fuel depots to push further south.
The report flags the militarisation of artificial reefs and atolls in disputed South China Sea that allow for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) forces to potentially launch landbased DF-26 intermediaterange ballistic missile strikes.
The analysis specifically nominates the PRC’S militarised Mischief Reef atoll as creating a “ring range” over key ADF facilities in the Northern Territory, Townsville in Queensland and the top half of Western Australia, notably the sensitive joint Australian-us Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt.
In October US intelligence confirmed Mischief Reef was militarily operational and Guam and America’s “Second Island Chain” Pacific defence strategy were now within PRC threat capability. Such a capability threat will feature heavily in discussions this week in inaugural AUKUS security pact talks in Washington between Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles and his US and UK counterparts.
Mr Marles said the meeting would advance the AUKUS agenda, creating opportunities to build the ADF’S military capabilities, bolster the country’s defence industry, and boost the supply chain between the three nations.
It comes during the “most complex and precarious set of strategic circumstances”.
Speaking to a business forum, Mr Marles said the Indo-pacific region was the epicentre of geostrategic competition “as we witness the largest military build-up anywhere in the world over the last 70 years”.
(It’s) the largest military buildup anywhere in the world over the last 70 years
DEFENCE MINISTER RICHARD MARLES
He said while AUKUS flagship focus was the Royal Australian Navy’s future acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines from the US and UK, so too were other joint programs and that would require a three-way industrial military manufacturing base.
“We must invest in capabilities that enable us to hold potential adversaries’ forces at greater distance and increase the cost of aggression against Australia,” he said.
The Defence Strategic Review – led by former ADF chief Sir Angus Houston and former defence minister Stephen Smith – will determine what the ADF would need to do this.