Lessons from the Iran crisis: Australia looking to ramp up missile production

Australia is looking to reshape its military production by producing its own anti-drone missiles like those being used to counter Iran as the government deploys forces to the Middle East to help stave off a longer conflict.

Just over a week after Australia backed the attacks on Iran by the US and Israel, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered 85 Australian troops, a surveillance plane and air-to-air missiles after a plea from the under-attack United Arab Emirates.

After years of criticism that Australia was ill-equipped to defend itself, Labor moved last term to produce four types of missiles onshore, all of which are offensive weapons used on land or to sink ships.

But a senior official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning, said a lesson from this war was that defensive missiles, able to knock drones out of the sky, were crucial for modern warfare. The government is now beginning work to add this type of missile to its arsenal.

The view inside Defence is that the longer the conflict in the Middle East goes on, the more the US will want to reserve missiles for its own use.

“That’s natural, that’s common sense. That was a lesson from Ukraine, too,” the official said.

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said Australia’s missile program was “about self-reliance within the alliance”.

“The US is very keen for its allies to develop more self-reliance – that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

The Trump administration has demanded Australia increase defence spending ahead of a major military strategy update ahead of the May budget.

Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed that the US had asked Australia to help with the defence of the Gulf states, but insisted the decision to send the surveillance plane and missiles was a direct response to the request from the UAE.

“A number of other countries, including the US have made requests which are centred on helping to provide for the defence of the Gulf countries,” Marles told the ABC’s 7.30 program. “But the request that we were responding to in relation to the deployment of both the E-7, but also the provision of the AMRAAMS, the advanced medium range air-to-air missiles, is a request from the United Arab Emirates.”

At a press conference on Tuesday morning as he pledged to send the surveillance plane, Albanese warned that “Iran’s reprisal attacks continue to escalate, already at a scale and depth we haven’t seen before”.

He insisted that “our involvement is purely defensive, and it’s in defence of Australians who are in the region, as well as in defence of our friends in the United Arab Emirates … and Australians”.

The government’s emphasis on limited, defensive support reflects pressure from some anti-war figures such as Bob Carr and Labor’s long-held scepticism about regime change exercises in the Middle East, which dates to Australia’s involvement in Iraq.

Defence analyst Michael Shoebridge said the government’s strategy was complicated because Iran would not distinguish between combatants.

“We’re best just admitting to ourselves that we’re now a part of this war, not just sitting in some quarantined corner,” Shoebridge said. “Offence and defence are just different sides of the coin of war.”

Global sharemarkets were smashed on Monday amid growing fears of an oil price shock. At a news conference in Florida that underscored his appetite to bring the destabilising conflict to an end, Trump said his “excursion” in Iran could wrap up “very soon”.

“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” Trump said after a dozen days of the conflict and inconsistent messaging from the White House about its mission.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott said sending a Wedgetail, a sophisticated military surveillance plane, was a small step in the right direction but less significant than UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s commitment of fighter jets to shoot down drones.

“What I can’t understand is the government’s total inability to contemplate the armed forces actually firing a weapon. Even defensively,” Abbott said. “The Albanese government still doesn’t seem to grasp that the Iranian mullahs’ regime is about as evil as can be. It’s a government full of social justice activists when what we need are national security warriors.”

Tuesday’s move directly involves Australia as Iran widens its attacks against 12 neighbouring nations that house US bases or embassies after the killing of its supreme leader.

Conroy refused to be drawn on whether the US, as well as the UAE, also made a request for military assistance. The prime minister’s office also declined to answer whether the US made an official request.

He repeated Albanese’s line that Australia would not play an offensive role.

“The Wedgetail is there to identify incoming missiles and incoming drones, that information would then be fed to the command and control system that the UAE used to then assign missile defence, so it’s purely about identifying incoming drones and missiles that will be then dealt with,” he said.

“The AMRAAMs, when they get over there, they’re a defensive missile which can only hit drones and missiles. So it can only be literally used to hit drones and missiles, so it’s purely defensive.”

Conroy revealed a major milestone in Australia’s own $21 billion missile production journey after not producing missiles for about 60 years.

The first batch of guided multiple launch rocket system (GMLRS) missiles, used in Ukraine, were produced in Australia last week and were about to go through test-firing and US certification.

Asked if Australia’s supply of missiles would be disrupted by the war, Conroy pointed to the sovereign missile manufacturing industry kickstarted by the Albanese government. He said the government is also in talks with Lockheed Martin to produce the precision strike missiles (PrSM) in Port Wakefield.

Those missiles are being produced only by Australia and the US, giving Conroy confidence that Australia would not be left behind in the current arms race.

“We’re determined not to be at the back of the queue and the way to do that is to build on our own,” he said.

Albanese said he had spoken to US President Donald Trump overnight, “primarily about the Iranian soccer team, but obviously, we also discussed world events”.

Albanese said 24,000 Australians remained in the UAE, many of whom would rely on departures from Dubai airport to return. The airport has been repeatedly targeted since the conflict began, forcing the cancellation of flights and what Foreign Minister Penny Wong has labelled as Australia’s worst-ever consular crisis.

Read more on the US-Israel-Iran war:

• Live updates: All the latest on the war in the Middle East
• Gulf states ask for help: Australia weighs sending surveillance aircraft
• Petrol: Regional servos run dry as fuel industry heads for crisis
• Opinion: Iran’s brave players have stood tall. Australia must stand with them
• On the ground in Beirut: Ahmad fled for safety. Then a drone hit the hotel next door
• World markets: Day of panic as war wipes $80 billion off Australian sharemarket
• Video evidence: US Tomahawk may have hit naval base near school

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