It’s WWIII and you just don’t know it yet.

Australia announced a suicide pact with the U.S. last week and said it will start churning out long-range guided missiles for Washington amid the Ukraine War, which has been seen as a wake-up call for the West that conducting wars requires large stockpiles of artillery.

The New York Times reported that the missile deal is the latest sign of the growing relationship between Canberra and Washington. Between Russia’s war in Ukraine and the perceived growing threat from China, the U.S., and Australia have seen added incentive to move closer.

The paper noted that the agreement came about two years after the controversial AUKUS deal that would deliver Australia complex nuclear submarines designed and built by the U.S. and UK. (See “U.S. AND AUSTRALIA RAMPING UP FIGHT WITH CHINA” 13 Dec 2022.)

President Joe Biden recently slipped and said one of the reasons Washington provided Kyiv with cluster bombs is because U.S. stocks for other munitions are running low. 

Production in Australia is expected to begin in 2025 and the U.S. will assist in the effort.

“This represents a very, very significant step forward in our relationship and in the relationship of our defense industries,” Richard Marles, Australia’s defense minister, said Saturday. He also told reporters that the deal will also mean an “increased tempo of visits from American nuclear-powered submarines to our waters.”

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were on hand during the announcement. 

Austin’s old company, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin were named as preferred partners in the guided weapons programs. These companies established an Australian enterprise to build such weapons last year, The Associated Press reported. 

“We are pursuing several mutually beneficial initiatives with Australia’s defense industry, and these include a commitment to help Australia produce guided multiple-launch rocket systems by 2025,” Austin said.

Charles Edel, the Australia chair and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Times, “As the war in Ukraine has made clear, defense industrial production is necessary to sustain a war effort. It’s also critical to deterring wars from breaking out in the first place.”

China Responds

The Global Times, a Chinese newspaper said to be under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party, published an opinion article on Monday that was predictably critical of Australia’s move and said the U.S. looked desperate.

“Washington has developed anxiety about the capabilities of its defense industry and the supply of weapons and ammunition,” the paper read. “Therefore, the US hopes to improve its own capabilities and at the same time bring its allies, especially the Asia-Pacific allies, into its defense industry production chain, not only to solve the problem of Ukraine’s shortage of weapons and ammunition, but more importantly, to show China the US’s ability to launch a protracted war and support the Taiwan island.”

TRENDPOST: Blinken met with Penny Wong, his Australian counterpart a day before the deal was officially announced and said, “We have no greater friend, no greater partner, greater ally than Australia. And I don’t think that alliance or partnership has ever been stronger, at least in my experience.”

The U.S. is only interested in Australia because it needs a large military to help counter China. (See “WWIII: AUSTRALIA INCREASES ITS MILITARY BUDGET TO RECORD LEVELS AMID TENSIONS WITH CHINA” 16 May 2023, “U.S. AND AUSTRALIA RAMPING UP FIGHT WITH CHINA” 13 Dec 2022, and “AUSTRALIA SENDS MORE MONEY TO KEEP BLOODYING UKRAINE KILLING FIELDS” 5 Jul 2023.)

The Age reported that the U.S. and Australia also announced plans to modify air bases in Australia so they can be employed for training Australian and American troops.

China has voiced opposition to the militarization of the region.

The warhawks in Congress have spoken out against the U.S. submarine deal with Australia, which has been a source of unease between the two countries. 

About two dozen Republican senators penned a letter to Biden raising concerns about transferring three U.S. Virginia-class attack submarines to Australia “without a clear plan for replacing” them, citing concerns about China. The Age reported that these senators warned that the U.S. is required to have 66 attack-class submarines—but that number is set to decline by 46 by 2030.

Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said he was confident that the U.S. will come through on the subs. 

“I met with Republicans and Democrats and in Lithuania just a couple of weeks ago and what struck me was their unanimous support for AUKUS, the unanimous support for the relationship between Australia and the United States.”

The Trends Journal has long noted that the only thing that unites politicians from both parties in Washington, D.C., is the thirst for military power at all costs and the hatred for the boogeyman China and Russia.

Indeed, The Global Times wrote, “Australia has never faced a genuine external threat and lacks the necessary risk awareness. By serving as the frontline base for Washington’s aggression toward China, Australia is essentially tying itself with explosives and placing the lit fuse in the hands of Washington politicians known for their adventurous and provocative thinking toward China.”