PETER LA FRANCHI / CANBERRA
Australia and the USA are to expand co-operation on sea-based ballistic missile defence with a navy-to-navy memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be signed 8-10 April in Canberra.
Australia is simultaneously to host a meeting of the eight-nation Maritime Theatre Missile Defence Forum, comprising Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and USA. France has applied to join the body and its membership will be considered during the Canberra meeting.
Both events will coincide with Australia achieving initial operational capability of its own processing station for the US early-warning satellite network. The new ground station, co-located with a US ground station at Pine Gap in central Australia, is designed initially to work with the existing US Defence Support Programme Satellites, but will also support the Space-Based Infra-red System (SBIRS) network.
Australia plans progressively to upgrade its own ground station over the next three to five years to enable it to interoperate fully with the evolving SBIRS system. The navy MoU on sea-based missile defence is intended to support ongoing planning for its Sea 4000 air warfare destroyer requirement centred on three to four ships entering service after 2010.
Australia had considered a theatre ballistic missile defence capability as part of its now abandoned ANZAC Frigate Warfighting Improvement programme. Its new Defence Strategic Review, released last month, called for the "development of effective missile defences to protect deployed military units" and said Australia would continue "our close dialogue with the USA on missile defence, given our close co-operation on ballistic missile early warning".
Source: Flight International