Australia scraps multi-billion dollar military satellite system

The Australian government announced on Monday that Australia has scrapped a satellite communications system being developed for the military.

Lockheed Martin Australia was awarded the tender to build a defiance owned and operated Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite communications system in 2023.

When the tender was awarded, the government said that it was a “multi-billion dollar” project that would deliver Australia’s first sovereign-controlled satellite communication system over the Indo-Pacific ocean regions.

However, the Australian Defence Ministry said that the acceleration in space technologies and evolving threats in space meant a single orbit GEO-based satellite communications system would no longer meet priorities.

The ministry said in a statement that instead of a single orbit solution, Defence must instead prioritise a multi-orbit capability increasing resilience for the Australian Defence Force.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Australian broadcaster ABC that the country’s defence budget was increasing, but his government was prioritizing its purchases.

‘‘We’re busy prioritising all of our purchases when it comes to defence assets, we’ve got a considerable increase in our defence budget and we’ll make sure all of the decisions that we make are in our national interest,’’ he said conclusively.

dpa/NAN