Australia has joined the US in launching a navigating hypersonic missile. Now China says this move makes Australia a “potential threat”.
On Tuesday, Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said: “We will continue to invest in advanced skills to provide the Australian defense force with alternatives to the violence against Australian interests.”
China’s State Media Slams US-Australia Partnership
The statement came as a diplomatic storm between Canberra and Beijing over a photo tweet sent by an Australian wolf warrior diplomat holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child.
Amid the turmoil, media outlets controlled by China’s Communist Party Global Times criticized the agreement to formalize an attempt to build a hyper-sonic missile with the US.
It called Australia a “potential danger and threat”.
It ruled that Australia “has no military conflict or differences” with China.
The channel described Australia as “far away”.
It judged Australia’s “land area” a barrier to Beijing’s desires for the South China Sea.
It boasts that China already has hypersonic weapons, and more is “under research and development as well as manufacturing and construction”.
And also, they dismissed the threat, saying that “the directed-energy weapons” could defeat them.
“If Australia wants to offend China, China is also ready to defend itself,” the Global Times reported.
Also, analysts warn that Australia is unlikely to defend itself.
Hypersonic Missile Competition
China and Russia claim to have hypersonic weapons.
The Russian government-controlled media broadcast drawings of older (but very fast) MiG-31 fighters with curling arrows strapped to their bellies.
China’s heavily tested media recently carried images of the H-6N strategic bomb carrying a large ballistic missile. It is also believed to be hypersonic.
But it is Russian archer Kinzhal “Dagger” that the Australian-US joint project seems to be emulating.
The announced goal is to build a portable F-18F Super Hornets and P-8A Poseidon aircraft.
The Australian Defense Science and Technology Group (DST) has long been working on the challenges of hypersonic aviation. The heat, pressure and complex flight physics are five times faster than the speed of sound. But the benefits offer a targeted weapon that can avoid intrusion and bring about a major kinetic impact.
For the past 15 years, DST has been working with the US Pentagon under the $ US54 million Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) program. That has now been replaced by the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE).
“The SCIFiRE initiative seeks to advance collaboratively to advance the technology of ventilation into full-fledged and affordable models that are flexible, remotely, ultimately with aircraft display in appropriate operating conditions,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Australia’s Defence Strategic Update
Australian Defense Strategy Renewal earlier this year sold the phone to the deal, announcing “a high-speed monitoring and evaluation program, long-distance strike and arrow defense, including hypersonic weapons, which have led to examples of future investment warnings.”
It ruled on regional threats that it was “much faster than expected… a combination of coercive activities.”
To counteract this, it has released a list of new acquisitions and technology programs.
“Long-distance reinforcements will be intensified with additional long-range rocket programs, mobile weapon protection and arrow upgrades,” notes Defense Strategic Update.
The document outlines the use of $ 400- $ 500 million to purchase “strike arrows” over the next decade. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a $ 800 million air-conditioning contract with the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM) in July.
The signing of a hypersonic partnership project closes the transition to a new Anti-Access / Area Denial (A2AD) strategy.
“Security arrangements, cooperation, intelligence cooperation, and technical and industrial cooperation between Australia and the United States are critical to the security of the Australian state,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, analysts have been examining the effects of this recent Western effort to play “catch” with independent competitors.
And there is some obvious weakness.
Is China Escalating The Tensions?
China has no intention of making Australia, which is far away and has no military tensions with China, a military foe. But if Australia develops and deploys aggressive weapons such as hypersonic missiles under the influence of the US, it is binding itself to the US chariot and could become a threat to China,” The Global Times warned on Wednesday.
Australia is already under the umbrella of China’s own hypersonic and ballistic missiles, such as the recently deployed DF-17.
H-6 strategic bombers can also carry cruise missiles within reach. This makes relatively undefended ADF military facilities, such as the Tindal Air Force Base in the Northern Territory, vulnerable.
According to Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) analyst Albert Palazzo, that’s Australia’s Achilles heel.
“What’s missing is a broad investment in defensive infrastructure to protect this essential capability upgrade from an adversary’s attack,” he said.
