US to Supply Australia with 220 Tomahawk Missile: What It Means for Defense

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Australia recently announced that it’s going to buy some submarines from the United States. That’s why Australia agreed to also buy 220 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the U.S., which was approved by the U.S. State Department on Friday. The missiles are necessary so that these new submarines can be used to defend Australia if needed in case of any problem with China, which could cause problems in the Indo-Pacific region.

Japan decided recently to make their military stronger in order to protect itself against China. As part of those plans, they are buying 400 missiles from the Raytheon company based in Arizona. It costs them almost $900 million dollars. The missiles should be ready by 2026.

The US State Department said that the sale of something will help them support America’s alliance with Australia in the Western Pacific. The Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles mentioned they would be working together with the US.

Defense Industry Minister Marles said that the country needs to have longer-range missiles in order for Australia to stay safe. Minister Conroy mentioned that these missiles could be fired from submarines that Australia would buy through the AUKUS deal.

The Defense Force of Australia wants to be as powerful as possible so they can attack enemies which are far away from the mainland. To achieve this, they need cruise missiles that will be launched by submarines.

The agreement to get a submarine has made some people worry that it might be used as a way for bad actors to not follow laws about nuclear weapons in the future. Rafael Grossi, who’s in charge of a group called the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he will make sure that this deal from the U.S. to Australia is obeyed properly.

Paul Keating, who was the Prime Minister of Australia before, said that this deal costs too much money and seems like “the worst deal ever”.

Officials in Australia guess that it will take between 178 and 245 billion dollars over 30 years to build submarines.

The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government has told people all they need to know about how much this costs.

Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that buying and building nuclear-powered submarines is a great idea since it can help us defend ourselves more than 10%. That’s why it’s an expense that’s worth making.