Australia to earmark $7bn+ to modernise and expand its fleet

The Australian government will spend $7.3bn to modernise and develop the country’s navy, TASS reports

photo: www.reuters.com

The Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said, “The government, through [Australian PM Anthony] Albanese, will earmark an additional A$11.1bn ($7.3bn) over the next decade to develop and modernise the Navy’s surface combatant fleet and strengthen the country’s sovereign shipbuilding industry.”

He also said that the additional funds will increase the total funding for the surface fleet integrated development programme over the next decade to A$54.2bn ($35.4bn), enabling Australia to build ‘a large, firepower-rich surface fleet, more than doubling the number of warships’.