In news that is unlikely to help repair Chinese relations strained by the recent Abbott Declaration, an American think tank has prepared a report recommending that Perth become the base for a new US aircraft carrier strike force. From the SMH:
A report for the US military, to be formally released tomorrow, contains a recommendation to expand America’s defence presence in Australia by massively expanding a base in Perth for a US aircraft carrier and supporting fleet.
Comparable cost estimates in the past have ranged from $1 billion to create a nuclear-capable homeport for a carrier at Mayport in Florida to $6.5 billion for similar capability in Guam
The plan is included as part of one of four options set out in a report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), commissioned by the Department of Defence.
The CSIS was directed to consider how the US military could undertake the “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region announced by President Barack Obama last year in response to China’s increasing influence.
The third option in the report – formally titled US Force Posture Strategy in the Asia Pacific Region: An Independent Assessment – details moving a US carrier strike group to the HMAS Stirling base in Perth.
The strike group would include a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, a carrier air wing of up to nine squadrons, one or two guided missile cruisers, two or three guided missile destroyers, one or two nuclear powered submarines and a supply ship.
I remember at The Diplomat we ran a few arguments that Australia needed to buy itself an aircraft carrier to protect its trades routes into North Asia. We were only half joking.
The most important point to note here is that a clear strategic shift is under way in Washington following the “pivot to Asia” announcement made by Obama in Darwin earlier this year. As I argued the other day when Abbott told the Chinese to shove their money, the context we are now operating in is one of strategic competition and such impromptu insults are ill-advised.
Apropos, there is a story floating around that during Obama’s recent visit, he was mobbed by politicians and luminaries pushing forward with pens and paper for an autograph. That seems to be the extent of our current leadership class’s strategic ambition. Direct from the pages of Who magazine.
God knows if anything will come of this CSIS proposal. But if it isn’t forthcoming then others like it soon will be. And when I look around I do not see a leadership of experience and gravitas to handle it.
