Chinese Military build up a concern to the Australian Military

Ross Babbage who was a member of the government’s advisory panel believes that Australia should have a fleet of around 12 nuclear-powered attack submarines.

According to him developing a conventionally armed cruise and ballistic missile capability to different new “arsenal ships” is something that Australia should do in order to increase their fleet’s power. Investments in Australia’s cyber-warfare are also required.

Babbage recommends that Australia hosts a couple of American military bases on their territory which will not only help disperse US military assets, but also make them harder to hit in an eventual military conflict with China.

Such a move would also show the strength of the Australia-US alliance and instantly discourage and signs of aggression towards Australia. Any hostile country will know that an eventual attack on Australia will involve one of the biggest and modern armies in the world – the American one.

Babbage is the founder of the Kokoda foundation security think tank and in his believes all this measures must be taken, because of China’s extremely aggressive military build-up which has transformed Australia’s strategic environment, thus making it more dangerous.

Babbage is sure that Australia cannot miss and ignore the pattern and sped at which the (Chinese) People’s Liberation Amy is developing and constantly altering security in the Western Pacific.

According to Babbage’s words the massive military expansion is focused on striking the US and all of its allied forces in the Western Pacific. These facts are being accompanied by the significantly more aggressive military and diplomatic behavior by Beijing.

All of the above are reasons why Australia should prepare an effective response to any eventual military conflict. The rising PLA is definitely one of the most serious forces that has confronted Australia since WWII. This is the first time in which China has such a military power that will allow them to deny access to much of the Western Pacific rim.

Another thing he argued about was the fact that this is not a question of attacks on Australia’s region, but instead this is a direct threat to Australia itself as it is in range of many of the existing Chinese weapon systems.

He pointed the improvements which China’s military has seen for the past couple of years and they are undoubtedly huge. New cruise and ballistic missiles have been developed and they can attack both, US and Australian ships as well as fixed targets. Latest information shows mass investments in the sphere of cyber-warfare and the reports of tens of thousands Chinese cyber intrusions daily are the evidence for that. New and improved conventional and nuclear submarines are being presented and China has acquired 40 new subs since 1995. China’s nuclear weapons have also risen to an worrying number and is expected that they will double or triple until 2030. In addition to the the investments in cyber-warfare there has been a tendency of investments in space warfare which will make it easier for China to destroy any communications satellites which are central in Western way of war. The Chinese Air Force has faced a lot of changes and improvements which increased the firepower of their aircraft.

According to Babbage it is impossible for Australia to match the capabilities of China alone and this is main reason why a strategic response like military cooperation with the US is required.