Press Conference, RAAF Base Tindal, Northern Territory

SUBJECTS: MQ-4C Triton delivery; RAAF Base Tindal; Investment in Australia’s northern bases; Ismail Haniyeh; Ministry changes; Hunter class frigates. 

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Welcome everyone today on what is a very auspicious occasion. It’s an honour to be here with Air Marshal Steve Chappell, the Chief of Air Force, and Christine Zeitz, who is the Australian CEO of Northrop Grumman, which is the company that has delivered this amazing capability sitting beside us this afternoon. Today, we are really excited to announce that we have taken possession of the first of the Triton aircraft. The Tritons are the largest uncrewed aircraft in the world today, and this will be one of four aircraft that we acquire as part of a transformational capability for our Air Force. This is a $2.5 billion dollar program which will see us purchase, operate and sustain this capability. And $900 million of that will be invested into Australian defence industry. This platform is designed to fly missions of 24 hours, and in that you would see a journey which is equivalent to a trans-Pacific flight. But perhaps more significantly, over a period of that time, this aircraft will be able to surveil an area the size of Western Australia, and that really speaks to the importance of this capability for the Australian Defence Force – because we are a country surrounded by oceans with vast approaches to our nation, and so the area that we need to surveil in order to keep our nation safe are massive. It is on a different scale to most countries of the world, which is why we need a cutting edge, highest capability (inaudible) which can do persistent and enduring missions, which enable us to do at surveillance. This primary job for this capability will of course be military, in that what it will be detecting or looking for is our adversary’s assets, surface fleets, submarines. That is what this capability is designed for. But it is obviously a capability which does hold significant enough that it can contribute to all of our nation's missions. Now the aircraft itself will essentially be based here at Tindal, but in some ways it is better to think of this being based at Edinburgh in Adelaide, because it's there that the plane will be sustained, it is there that this aircraft will downlink the information that it captures, it's there that that information will be processed, and it's there where this aircraft will be flown. It will actually have a pilot who will operate the aircraft during its missions, sitting behind a console in RAAF Base Edinburgh in Adelaide. So the squadron that will be operating this capability is going to be based at RAAF Base Edinburgh. 

This is a really exciting development in terms of improving the capability of our northern bases, which of course, was at the heart of what we announced with the Defence Strategic Review and the National Defence Strategy. And it is just part of the improved capabilities that we see around us here at Tindal. Indeed, around us there is another $42 million worth of investment as part of the National Defence Strategy happening right here Tindal –everything from improved fuel farms, to an improved passenger receiving terminal, to improved runway works. It is a very exciting time for this space. It's a very exciting time for the Defence Force in the Northern Territory, indeed, the Defence Force more generally. And this is speaking to us building a Defence Force which is much more capable in terms of our ability to project and our ability to defend our nation. Over to the Chief of Air Force.

AIR MARSHAL STEPHEN CHAPPELL, CHIEF OF AIR FORCE: Thanks Deputy Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, it's lovely to be here today in RAAF Base Tindal with you. The MQ-4 Triton will be flown and operated by Number 9 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, which was re-established middle of last year. 9 Squadron has a wonderful history of service, including Iroquois, operational service in Vietnam and service in World War Two, flying with the Royal Australian Navy. So this is a continuation of that service, that service that includes joint operations with our Navy and our Army and now we are expanding that partnership and we'll be operating the Triton with our industry partners, Northrop Grumman, in the years ahead. As the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned, the 9 Squadron itself will be operating from the main operating base at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia. We'll have a small team here with Northrop Grumman maintaining and launching and recovering the aircraft here at RAAF Base Tindal and again, as the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned, this will provide an incredibly important and persistent layer of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to the ADF’s broader suite of options. It will surveil a large area, we can program the flights to look anywhere within our region that we require and we can contribute not only to our own joint, integrated and focused force that we are currently building by the National Defence Strategy, but we can also contribute to the maritime domain awareness of our allies and partners within the region. Speaking of which, as we're here in the top end today, that's exactly what we're exercising with Exercise Pitch Black. Over 20 nations participating in the exercise, almost 4,500 participants and 140 aircraft practicing training, building our procedures, building our shared understanding, and building the friendships and relationships that will allow us to continue to operate and support our nation's interests and each other's nation's interests in the years ahead. Thank you very much.

JOURNALIST: Previous documents have always talked about the potential for there to be six drones in the future, even as recently as some of the last budget papers. Is that still an option? Is that something the Government's considering, especially given the American’s plan to wind down the production, I think, at the end of 2025?

MARLES: Look in the longer term, but the capability that we are acquiring now is four aircraft and that is what we're focused on. The next two will be delivered during the course of 2025 and a fourth will be delivered after that.

JOURNALIST: Critics will say that in the unmanned revolution it's all about cheap, small, easily lost drones – you don't have to worry about them. This is clearly the opposite of that. What would you say to those critics that this is too expensive and there's too few of them?

MARLES: We have a particular circumstance which is defined by our geography. We’re a nation which is based on a continent surrounded by oceans, where the approaches to our country happen over the vast distances. And so our need to engage in surveillance is over an area which is much greater than what most countries would have to deal with. Certainly, it's on a different scale to anything that we would be seeing in the conflict in Ukraine, for example. And so this is an exquisite capability which is perfectly tailored to what Australia needs. We need to have the longest range persistent surveillance capability possible given the vast areas that we need to surveil in order to keep our nation safe, and so that this one aircraft on a single mission is capable of surveilling an area the size of Western Australia, speaks to why this capability is so potent for Australia.

JOURNALIST: On a single mission, will it be looking– will it be doing defence work, or will it be doing a multitude of work – looking at illegal fishermen, for instance, any legal arrivals – or will it just be focused on one job?                                                                                                  

MARLES: Well, this is a military capability and so the primary task of this capability, of this aircraft, is to do military work, and that is to look for the assets of potential adversaries. It's about looking at the navies and the assets of the navies of our adversaries. And it's designed to go after those kinds of assets. It is obviously an incredible capability, and so we will be able to assist in all of the Government's tasks. 

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) to pick up wooden fishing boats of people smugglers and that sort of stuff?

MARLES: This is a capability that can perform work in terms of illegal fishing (inaudible). It does have the capability, obviously, to contribute to our border protection. But I want to emphasise that the principal function of this is a military function (inaudible).

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) 

MARLES: So Ben, I'm going to come back to a couple of those– just in terms of broader questions while I've got Air Marshal Chappell with me. So I'll come back to the question of Ismail Haniyeh in a second. In terms of– as I mentioned in the opening, we are investing significantly in the airbase here at Tindal, it’s part of our strategy to improve the capability of our northern bases, and being able to operate the Triton from Tindal is a perfect example of that. But we are also seeing increased United States investment in our northern bases, and specifically here at Tindal, and that's a very important part of the force posture initiatives of the United States, here in Australia, it's very much an important part of our cooperation with our ally, the United States. In terms of integrated air missile defence, our focus is on making sure that we have the best possible capability for our nation in the 2030s, 40s and beyond. That is the strategic problem that we are seeking to solve. And we need to be making sure that we are investing in capabilities which will be able to endure over that time frame. So that has been our focus in terms of the decisions we've been making in building integrated air and missile defence. Clearly, we continue, though to work with our close friends and allies, including the United States, in relation to integrated air and missile defence capability in the here and now. I'll come back to your other question in a moment Ben, but are there any other questions about this capability? 

JOURNALIST: Maybe one directed to the Air Marshal, can you just sort of explain what this does differently than what satellites do, what radars do, what P-8s do? What makes this particularly unique– what Ghost Bat will be able to do, given that we've sort of seen that will have a surveillance focus? 

CHIEF OF AIR FORCE: Thanks for your question, so what the Triton is going to do is give us a high altitude, long endurance, persistent ISR look in the maritime domain. So it will augment- it will be able to layer Triton effects and operations with our P-8 Poseidon effects and operations, with other capabilities including space based JORN etcetera, to ensure that we are covering the field either continuously or, in the case of Triton, regularly, and then looking in more detail with crewed platforms at different altitudes, and also in the future if a crisis or a conflict were to develop, those crewed platforms like the P-8s actually providing potential kinetic effects against enemy forces. So it's about layering capabilities and layering effects and providing effectively all domain and persistent coverage in our area of primary interest. 

JOURNALIST: This is clearly about surveillance. Can you foresee a future where you might arm it?

CHIEF OF AIR FORCE: We'll have a lot of options as far as platforms that are armed and might be required to respond in a point of conflict. However, this platform is designed as you see it, as a high altitude, long endurance, persistent ISR platform, not an armed platform.

JOURNALIST: What are you doing thought, with Ghost Bat, as we saw last week, the reports that it won't have- be fitted with weapons. What's Air Force doing to look at that gap now for an unarmed, sorry, for an unmanned, armed drone? 

CHIEF OF AIR FORCE: Well, the MQ-28 and decisions as to exactly how we're going to posture that platform are yet to be made yet. So that's where we are at the moment with the MQ-28. We continue to develop a capability. We're looking to demonstrate that capability over the coming 12-18 months, and decisions will be made around the MQ-28 in due course, as we further understand its capabilities, its options and also what other options are going to be there with allies and partners.

MARLES: I might, just on that; I mean, the full range of payloads and capabilities are still open to us in terms of how we (inaudible). 

JOURNALIST: The American Navy has really massively cut their order for these drones from 77 to 20. They clearly think that it's not the best priority for their investment given their emerging technologies, and pretty extraordinary price tag. You're still open to us ordering as many as six. Does that American Navy decision give you any pause?

MARLES: Well, I want to make clear is what we are purchasing is four, and that is where our decision is at, and that's what we are focused on pursuing. I mean, these are incredibly capable aircraft. When a single mission is able to surveil an area the size of Western Australia, it speaks to why just a few aircraft can do such a huge job. And I think that goes to the decisions that have been made in the United States in terms of their own priorities. But from our point of view, having four aircraft is going to be transformational in terms of our ability to surveil our northern approaches, and that is the capability that we're seeking to build. And we're really confident that this airframe will be build. 

JOURNALIST: You've mentioned a lot of investment for the north, especially for Tindal, between Australia and the Americans. Are you making Tindal a target?

MARLES: We're making Tindal capable. And we are giving our northern bases an ability for our nation to be able to project much better generally, and much better from those bases. And that is fundamentally what we need to do in order to keep us, to keep Australians safe. Actually, all of this, in terms of building this capability, makes us less of a target, and that is the whole point of the strategic posture that we have and the direction that we're taking. 

JOURNALIST: I believe in the most recent ANAO report on these drones, they said that hopefully Defence will get 300 flying hours done this financial year on this platform. Are we on track for that?

MARLES: The first of the flights of this will occur within the next couple of months, as we begin all the operational testing and work that needs to be done over the course of the next year and more to give rise to the operational capability. 

We might thank Christine and the Air Marshal for joining us today. 

So I might go back– you're still there, Ben, I might go back to Ben's question. We're aware of the news of in relation to Ismail Haniyeh. Let me firstly say that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. This individual was central to the activities which occurred on October 7, activities which we have consistently condemned. That said, we have consistently been advocating for a ceasefire in the Middle East, to see an end to the catastrophe which is playing out in the Middle East. And we very much support the efforts of President Biden and his administration in bringing about a ceasefire. And clearly, in this moment, we are very much advocating, using our voice in the global community to advocate against any escalation in what's occurring in the Middle East.

JOURNALIST: How concerning though is it? You know, we had a strike directly in Beirut. This is another strike in Iran territory. How great is the risk of escalation, in your view?

MARLES: Well, I mean, I think all of us look at what's occurring in the Middle East and want to see an end to the catastrophe that is playing out. We definitely want to ensure that we do not see an escalation in what's playing out in the Middle East, because the consequences of that would be profound, and it would be profound in respect of the loss of innocent lives, and that's why Australia has used its advocacy within the international community to call for a ceasefire and to prevent or to argue against any escalation in this conflict. 

JOURNALIST: Just in relation to the recent Cabinet reshuffle, does Pat Conroy's promotion acknowledge that the defence capability was stalling and that there needed to be another defence minister in the Cabinet?

MARLES: I think the promotion of Pat Conroy into the Cabinet is incredibly well deserved. You know, I feel very privileged to have been able, over the last more than two years, to be working alongside Pat really, as a partner in terms of the acquisition of capabilities and putting those capabilities into service. And this, more than anything else, is an acknowledgement of the great work that he has done. I think this is only positive in terms of the way in which the defence portfolio is managed. But we now have two ministers at a cabinet level, and I look forward to continuing to work with Pat as a partner, as I have over the last two years. 

JOURNALIST: Luke Gosling missed out on the ministry. Is he in the running for a ministry? He's been there a while now, and he's got a defence background. Why was he overlooked? 

MARLES: Well, Luke wasn't overlooked. Luke, of course, is now an envoy within the defence space, and I'm really looking forward to working with Luke in an even greater role than we do right now. Of course, as the Member for Solomon looking after Darwin, which is one of our great garrison towns, Luke has a day-to-day involvement with our Defence Force. But Luke, obviously, in terms of his own history before entering parliament, has had a deep engagement with the Defence Force and a very proud record of the service. And all of that, I think, is going to be invaluable, as he now works with the rest of us in the defence team in terms of the defence portfolio. This is again a real tribute to Luke, to the work that he's done, it is very much a feather in his cap, and we're really excited about Luke taking on a bigger role.

JOURNALIST: Is $4 billion good value for a Hunter class frigate?

MARLES: The Hunter class frigates are going to be as capable a frigate as exists in the world today. Hunter class frigates will be the quietest frigate that exists in the world today. And we are very excited about what Hunter will add to our surface fleet. It will really be at the heart of our surface combatant fleet. Given, in a sense, what this announcement today is about is an acknowledgement of the vastness of our ocean approaches, of the areas that we need to surveil, of the task at hand for our Defence Force, in terms of surveilling and going after the assets of any adversary at sea, Hunter is right at the forefront of that as well. So, we are really looking forward to Hunter. And Hunter has had its issues, but it is very much back on track. And we are looking forward to the implementation of Hunter into our surface fleet. Thanks.

ENDS