Australias forsvarsminister om at NSM og HIMARS fører til "impactful projection" - Defence Connect

Norge må følge opp med NSM i kystforsvaret, ikke bare på fregattene. (Red.)

Can we have ‘impactful projection’ without ‘impactful presence’?

NSM launced off Norway

KEY ENABLERS

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09 JANUARY 2023

By: Stephen Kuper

While there is a growing emphasis on long-range strike as a form of impactful Australian projection in the region, are we overlooking the importance of an impactful presence? 

“Impactful projection” has emerged as one of the favoured terms of the new government and the growing pace of Australia’s strategic realignment, with Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles leveraging the term to prepare the public and the defence ecosystem ahead of the release of the Defence Strategic Review (DSR). 

This emphasis on “impactful projection” has gained further traction following the government’s recent announcements confirming the acquisition of the fifth-generation Naval Strike Missile (NSM) for the Royal Australian Navy’s major surface combatants, and the much-anticipated acquisition of the HIMARS system which are much needed transformational capabilities for the strike capacity of the Australian Defence Force. 

In their purist sense, these new acquisitions serve as the linchpin of how the Deputy Prime Minister articulates his concept of “impactful projection” and the way it will shape the ADF over the coming decades:  “I think increasingly we’re going to need to think about our defence force in terms of being able to provide the country with impactful projection, impactful projection, meaning an ability to hold an adversary at risk, much further from our shores, across kind of the full spectrum of proportionate response. Now, that is actually a different mindset to what we’ve probably had before.” 

Despite the public anticipation and much of the hype surrounding these acquisitions ahead of the formal release of the DSR and the ensuring implications for force structure, planning and long-term capability acquisition, there seems to be a glaring lack of consideration for Australia’s future capacity to deploy with “impactful presence” throughout the Indo-Pacific.