Australian Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy, in a meeting with UK Defense Procurement Minister Alex Chalk, urged the British to increase their purchases of Australian military equipment to save jobs. Reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
According to Conroy, this would be fair after Australia’s purchase of US-British nuclear submarines provided under the AUKUS alliance of the three countries and a multi-billion dollar contract from the Australian Navy to build the Hunter. class frigates.
As an example, he cited the armored personnel carriers of the Bushmaster and their components for nuclear submarines. Also, according to the publication, the UK could purchase CEAFAR radar, EOS sights and the Ghost Bat drone for warships from Australia, first introduced in 2019.
“We’re currently buying a lot of equipment from the UK and they also buy some equipment from Australia, but we always want them to buy more and support more business in Australia,” Conroy said.
He added that the AUKUS alliance involves much more cooperation than purchasing submarines.
“AUKUS is busy building industrial cooperation in three countries to expand all of our industrial bases, so I hope and hope we will do more business with the UK,” said Conroy.
Previously reportedAustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to the AUKUS agreement with the US and UK on nuclear submarines, which includes the purchase of eight US ships for $100 billion.
Albanese described the contract as Australia’s “biggest leap in defensive capability”. However, he noted that AUKUS is “very important” to Australia’s security during a “time of uncertainty” in the Asia-Pacific region.
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave an opinionThe purchase of Virginia-class nuclear submarines (“Virginia”) from the United States, announced by Canberra in the summer of 2022, will signal the renunciation of the country’s national sovereignty.
What Australia almost completely overlooks is that Canberra cannot operate and maintain nuclear submarines purchased from the US without US Navy oversight.