Marcus Hellyer and Andrew Nicholls:
The government has said the Australian Defence Force requires greater long-range strike capability. This was first stated in the previous government’s 2020 defence strategic update, which emphasised the need for ‘self-reliant deterrent effects’. The current government has endorsed that assessment: Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has said: ‘The ADF must augment its self-reliance to deploy and deliver combat power through impactful materiel and enhanced strike capability—including over longer distances.’ He’s coined the term ‘impactful projection’ to describe the intended effect of this capability, which is to place ‘a very large question mark in the adversary’s mind’.
