The US will assist Australia in developing guided multiple-launch rocket systems by 2025, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are in Queensland for the biennial Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) meeting with their Australian colleagues.
Austin stated during a news conference that “we are pursuing several initiatives with Australia’s defense industry that are mutually beneficial, including a commitment to assist Australia in producing guided multiple launch rocket systems… by 2025.”
The U.S. is also accelerating Australia’s access to priority munitions through a streamlined acquisition process, he added.
It is the first time Australia has hosted the high-level meeting since 2019 due to the COVID-19 disruption.
Australia’s Labor government has been bolstering military ties with the U.S., a long-standing ally, amid a military build-up in the region from a more assertive China.
“We are really pleased with the steps that we are taking in respect of establishing a guided weapons and explosive ordnance enterprise in this country,” Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said.
He expressed hope that missile manufacturing could begin in Australia in two years, as part of a collective industrial base between the two countries.
U.S Secretary of State Blinken said “chief” among Saturday’s high-profile talks with Australia was a shared commitment to a free and secure Indo-Pacific region.
After the two-day talks ending on Saturday, Marles and Austin are set to travel to north Queensland, where Australian and U.S. military are taking part in the Talisman Sabre war games along with 11 other nations.
The games, however, were put on hold after an Australian military helicopter participating in the exercises crashed into the ocean, with at least four people onboard feared dead.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Blinken said China has assured the U.S. repeatedly that it was not providing “material lethal assistance” to Russia for use in Ukraine.
