A United States army unit “successfully sank a maritime target” on July 15, in the Northern Territory. It didn’t make headlines, but it should have, given the rulers’ war talk.
Reporting on Talisman Sabre, the biennial military exercises between the US and Australia, has been decidedly downbeat this July.
However, the US defence department hasn’t held back, describing the live fire exercise as “a significant milestone”. This is because the US army “successfully executed” its Typhon missile system, which proved it could “forward deploy long-range precision fires”.
Together with the Australian Defence Force (ADF), the US now has the ability to “execute command and control of a land-based maritime strike”. An ADF commanding officer also enthused about this “milestone” on July 22, saying it provides proof “that if we had a real situation we can plan and operate together”.
These bilateral war exercises, costing upwards of $100 million combined (Defence refuses to give the actual figure), take on a new focus in the context of the AUKUS military alliance, which is squarely aimed at China.
In the context of the US Congressional review of AUKUS, these “interoperability” exercises between the US and Australia (with 17 other countries participating) would give the US hawks an assurance that Australia is playing ball.
Indeed, there is no reason to think that Australia’s bipartisan commitment to AUKUS is waning, despite Donald Trump being at the helm.
Public opinion is turning against AUKUS, with a July 14 YouGov poll finding that 66% want a parliamentary inquiry into AUKUS, up from 57%. Fewer than half believe AUKUS makes Australia safer.
But the hawks in the US and Australia are pushing ahead regardless. They want US “allies” to lift defence spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Currently, just over 2% of Australia’s GDP is spent on “defence”; by the mid 2030s, this is forecast to lift to 2.3% of GDP. (The Coalition campaigned for 2.5% of GDP in five years and 3% in 10 years.)
But the prone-to-meltdown US defence secretary Pete Hegseth is unimpressed, telling defence minister Richard Marles at the Shangri-la Dialogue in June to lift defence spending by an extra $40 billion a year. This, Hegseth made clear, was about showing support to the US against a “real and potentially imminent” China threat.
While Marles told Hegseth he’d look into it, Albanese rejected the call, which, at around 3.5% of GDP, would require significant — and unpopular — new taxation policies or drastic new cuts to the public sector.
Albanese is trying to walk both sides of the street. He remains enthusiastic about the $368 billion down payment on the illusive AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines but wants to be seen as a strong PM who will stand up to Trump’s bullying.
Mouthing platitudes about “national interest” is a furphy, given Australians’ views on AUKUS and Australia tying itself, for all practical purposes, to Trump’s agenda, including support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Australia already overspends on defence, according to The Australia Institute (TAI).
In dollar terms, Australia is the 12th biggest spender on defence, with more money going to the military than Canada, Israel, Spain or the Netherlands. It also ranks 12th in defence spending as a percentage of GDP — ahead of China, Italy, Germany and Japan.
According to the TAI’s Matt Grudnoff, if Australia raised its defence spending to 2.3% of GDP, it would be the ninth biggest spender on defence and the military. Australia would be devoting more of its GDP to defence than France and Taiwan — on par with Britain. If it went to 3% of GDP, as the Coalition wants, it would pass India, South Korea and would “be closing in on the United States”.
Trump signed an executive order in April to restore the US’ maritime dominance. He’s doing it with Australia’s help; a down payment of $800 million was sent last year for the first Virginia-class submarine.
Australians’ interests are not being served by Labor going along with any Trump-led military expansion, on the dystopian excuse that the world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place.
Australia is not at risk of being invaded. But with Trump leading the charge and AUKUS looking solid, there is a real likelihood of this country becoming a base from which the US can launch a war on China over Taiwan.
So far, Albanese has been standing his ground, but the infrastructure — ANZUS and AUKUS — for a new “coalition of the willing” is in place.
We need more than Albanese’ promises of “support for the status quo” on Taiwan. Labor must scrap AUKUS and rule out joining a US war on China. The stakes could not be higher, as the Talisman Sabre exercises in death and destruction remind us.
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