Aussie government outlines $60-billion defence programme
02 Jul 2009
The Australian federal government yesterday released a Defense Capability Plan (DCP) that outlines its decision to spend $60 billion to boost the Australian military projects over the next five years.
The biggest project is for three state-of-the art warships, a plan estimated to cost $8 billion.
With this kind of local industry participation, defense jobs are expected to jump nearly four per cent in the next four years.
The DCP is the much anticipated industry follow-up to Defence White Paper and contains detailed information on more than 110 projects worth more than $60 billion.
While releasing the plan, defence minister John Faulkner said in Adelaide yesterday that spending in the defence sector would increase dramatically from $4.5 billion to $5.6 billion over the next four years as the department begins a major acquisition programme.
He said the increase would create an additional 5000 jobs in the Australian defence sector, many of which would be in SA's strength areas of maritime and electronics.