(Source: Financial Times; published Aug. 26, 2018)
The world’s biggest defence contractors have been lured by a government plan to spend A$200bn ($147bn) on military hardware over the next decade — the largest build-up of military capabilities in peacetime in the country’s history. Companies are scrambling to catch the eye of the visiting politicians and generals who oversee procurement decisions.
The blitz of defence adverts has prompted a ‘No Airport Arms Ads’ campaign to try to persuade Canberra airport to replace them with a 'friendlier greeting to the nation’s capital'
They are also hiring thousands of staff and establishing new manufacturing operations to help deliver Canberra’s strategy to create one of the most capable armed forces in Asia Pacific and transform Australia into one of the world’s top 10 arms exporters. It is currently ranked 19.
“I make zero apologies for wanting to ensure the nation’s security and to protect our servicemen and women,” says Christopher Pyne, Australia’s defence industry minister. “We live in a more unsettled region than we have in several decades . . . One of the developments in our region in the last few years is the militarisation of islands in the South China Sea by the People’s Republic of China and of course the Korean peninsula has been unstable for decades.”
A decade-long push by Beijing to modernise its military forces and advance its territorial claims in contested waters in Asia is prompting a response from neighbours, which some commentators argue risks spawning a regional “arms race” that increases the threat of conflict. (end of excerpt)
Click here for the full story, on the FT website.
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