Australia to boost missile production after China tests ICBM in Pacific

Australia to increase missile defence and long-range strike capability as the Asia Pacific region enters the ‘missile age’.

Australia will increase its missile defence capability after China’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the South Pacific raised “significant concerns” and as the Asia Pacific region enters a “missile age”.

Australia plans to increase its missile defence and long-range strike capability, and will cooperate with security partners the United States, Japan and South Korea on issues of regional stability, the country’s Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said in a speech on Wednesday.

“Why do we need more missiles? Strategic competition between the United States and China is a primary feature of Australia’s security environment,” Conroy told the National Press Club in Canberra.

“That competition is at its sharpest in our region, the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

Conroy said the region was on the cusp of a new missile age, where missiles are also “tools of coercion”.