The federal government has been slammed for taking a "leisurely" approach to Australia's domestic weapons manufacturing, after it announced a contract to start building long-range missiles here from 2025 - four years after such a partnership was promised.
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Acting Defence Minister Pat Conroy told reporters on Tuesday that Australia would start manufacturing long-range missiles from next year under a $37.4 million deal inked with Lockheed Martin Australia.
But Dr Malcolm Davis, senior analyst in defence strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that while the agreement was a "step forward", Tuesday's announcement was nothing more than a "re-announcement of a previous announcement".
"I do have to say that we are moving very slowly with this, which is unfortunate given the rapid deterioration of our strategic environment at the moment," Dr Davis told The Canberra Times.
"So there is this disconnect between the pace of capability acquisition on the one hand, versus the strategic threat that's going on the other.
"In a war situation, we can't assume that the supply chains will remain intact... We need to have the capability to be able to manufacture missiles ourselves."
In March 2021, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would accelerate the creation of a $1 billion Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise and promised the Defence Department would select a strategic industry partner to manufacture and supply guided weapons in Australia.
"Creating our own sovereign capability on Australian soil is essential to keep Australians safe, while also providing thousands of local jobs in businesses right across the defence supply chain," Mr Morrison said at the time.
Dr Davis said that both parties were guilty of rehashing earlier announcements, but needed to focus instead on ramping up domestic weapons manufacturing.
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"Both the Coalition government and the Labor government have done this sort of thing to try and suggest that progress was being made when in actual fact it's moving... too slowly," he said.
"So I think this is something that both parties need to think about: how do they move defense capability acquisition faster in the face of this rapidly deteriorating strategic outlook?"
Acting Minister Conroy also announced that they would acquire Precision Strike Missiles that able to hit targets up to 500km away as part of a $4.1 billion investment following last year's scathing defence strategic review.