The US considers Australia an excellent testing ground for modern weapons

11 August, 2023 A pair of Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A fighters armed with AMRAAM missiles. Photo credits: Australian Department of Defence The United States views Australia as an excellent testing ground for modern hypersonic and long-range weapons.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports. According to the trilateral AUKUS pact signed between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, the Pentagon considers vast desert areas to be an excellent test site for missile weapons. And the development of a new type of weapons on the territory of Australia is also under consideration.

The country has already done some research in the field of hypersonic technologies with the SCIFiRE project.

Rendering of the SCIFiRE hypersonic cruise missile. Photo from the network

"One of the things about Australia is that it's a long distance and relatively uninhabited land," said Christine Wormuth, US Secretary of the Army. This is not the first time Australia becomes a testing ground for new types of weapons.

For example, in 1952, the United Kingdom tested the first domestically developed nuclear bomb as part of Operation Hurricane. The tests continued until 1963. Since then, the United Kingdom has conducted more than 12 major nuclear tests and about a hundred minor ones.

As Militarnyi previously reported, New Zealand could take part in the AUKUS weapons development and procurement project between the United States, Great Britain and Australia. On Thursday, 27 July, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta.

Test launch of the SCIFiRE missile. Photo credits: Australian Defense Force

"The door is very much open for New Zealand and other partners to get involved in AUKUS," Blinken said at a press conference in Wellington.

New Zealand officials stated that their country was open to discussing its participation in the AUKUS project, which focused on the development of military technologies and arms procurement.

However, Mahuta emphatically stated that she was "not prepared to compromise or change her non-nuclear position" and that she continued to support a nuclear-weapon-free Pacific space.

The country's motivation for joining the defence programme is explained by concerns about China's presence in the Pacific, in particular, due to Beijing's growing defence and police ties with Solomon Islands, as well as its potential destabilising influence in the region.