USA military to move next gen weapons testing to Australia

[Xon]

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US sets sights on Australia bomb tests
Reporter: Narda Gilmore


MAXINE McKEW: An Australian defence expert has revealed the US military wants to begin testing its new generation weapons, including the smart bomb, on Australian soil within three years.

Professor Ross Babbage has been involved in high-level defence talks in Washington as part of planning for new joint military training operations between Australia and the US.

Australian officials are playing down his comments, saying there are no plans for any new weapons testing facilities.

From Canberra Narda Gilmore reports.

NARDA GILMORE: The groundwork has already been done.

In July this year, Australia and the United States signed a deal to develop three high-tech joint military training centres, at Shoalwater Bay in Queensland and the Bradshaw training area and Delamere weapons range in the Northern Territory.

DONALD RUMSFELD, US DEFENCE SECRETARY: Our countries should be better able to integrate our military capabilities to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

NARDA GILMORE: It's now becoming clearer how the new training centres will be used.

Defence expert Professor Ross Babbage has recently returned from high level talks in Washington, and he sees big benefits ahead for Australia's defence force.

PROFESSOR ROSS BABBAGE, FORMER GOVERNMENT DEFENCE ADVISOR: What it's clearly going to be and has the potential to be as a consequence of these exercises and other things that are happening in parallel is right at the cutting edge of the next generation of warfare.

NARDA GILMORE: Professor Babbage says the Bush Administration considers Australia one of its closest allies.

He expects the US to increase the amount of training it does here.

The first of the new joint warfare exercises will be held at Queensland's Shoalwater Bay in 2007.

PROFESSOR ROSS BABBAGE: We'll be experimenting, working out better ways of actually playing the game, if you like, and getting much better value.

NARDA GILMORE: Professor Babbage says future exercises might also include trials of new generation weapons, including the self-guided smart bomb.

That's angered some residents group, and they're vowing to fight.

DENIS DOHERTY, AUSTRALIAN ANTI-BASES COALITION: We're talking about everything in our armoury -- from protests to letter writing to civil disobedience.

NARDA GILMORE: The Queensland Government is also concerned.

PETER BEATTIE, QLD PREMIER: Because I think that makes us a target.

I mean, the United States has got a lot of areas where they can do that testing themselves, a bit like the French, you can do it at home, you don't need to do it here.

The joint exercises are really important but I don't think we need to be testing bombs.

PROFESSOR ROSS BABBAGE: I can't imagine that this is going to render Australia or certainly Queensland any more vulnerable to terrorist attack.

Frankly, what it is going to do is send a signal to anyone who wants to look -- is that the ADF is going to be formidable.

NARDA GILMORE: In a statement today, the Defence Department says previous joint training exercises have already included the use of smart weapons.

But it also says while talks with the US are continuing, there's no current proposal to develop any extra facilities for trials of new weapons.

Narda Gilmore, Lateline.

Unlike America, Australia doesnt have any bombing ranges even close to civilization.

[Crayz9000]

Unlike America, Australia doesnt have any bombing ranges even close to civilization.

Have no fear, that's why we're developing weapons that we can use to miss the broad side of a barn from five hundred miles away

[Mr Bean]

Unlike America, Australia doesnt have any bombing ranges even close to civilization.

Have no fear, that's why we're developing weapons that we can use to miss the broad side of a barn from five hundred miles away

Yes soon you will be able to pick which pane of glass you want the bomb to go through and what floor it gets off from the elvator

Which building it is, is still not selectable

[Admiral Valdemar]

Hey! That's the MoD's playground, not the DoD's.

[Sea Skimmer]

Have no fear, that's why we're developing weapons that we can use to miss the broad side of a barn from five hundred miles away

Developing? We already have the Snark counter accuracy weapon, capable of hitting the wrong continent.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Developing? We already have the Snark counter accuracy weapon, capable of hitting the wrong continent.

That's one of my all-time favourite military blunder stories. Beautiful weapon.

[Exonerate]

Developing? We already have the Snark counter accuracy weapon, capable of hitting the wrong continent.

That's one of my all-time favourite military blunder stories. Beautiful weapon.

What is it?

[Mlenk]

Developing? We already have the Snark counter accuracy weapon, capable of hitting the wrong continent.

That's one of my all-time favourite military blunder stories. Beautiful weapon.

???

[Admiral Valdemar]

The missile - an old cruise design with many a problem before ICBMs took over - had a tendency of, well, not doing what it was told very well. If it wasn't dropping a nuke with a CEP (the area of accuracy in radius) of several klicks, it was simply falling out of the sky.

One particularly memorable incident had the Snark being tested from Cape Canaveral I believe it was, and was to go and hit a target at Ascension Island as part of the Atlantic testing phase. It didn't quite make it, instead it quite happily veered off course and ignore the rather impolite self-destruct order from command and disappeared. About a decade later, remains of this Snark were found in Western Brazil. So this time, it didn't even hit the right continent. Just as well this was a test.

I hear this is one of a whole storybook of bad reports on the ill-fated missile, but it's the most bizarre.

[Sea Skimmer]

The missile - an old cruise design with many a problem before ICBMs took over - had a tendency of, well, not doing what it was told very well. If it wasn't dropping a nuke with a CEP (the area of accuracy in radius) of several klicks, it was simply falling out of the sky.

One particularly memorable incident had the Snark being tested from Cape Canaveral I believe it was, and was to go and hit a target at Ascension Island as part of the Atlantic testing phase. It didn't quite make it, instead it quite happily veered off course and ignore the rather impolite self-destruct order from command and disappeared. About a decade later, remains of this Snark were found in Western Brazil. So this time, it didn't even hit the right continent. Just as well this was a test.

I hear this is one of a whole storybook of bad reports on the ill-fated missile, but it's the most bizarre.

Not quite, in the most notable failure a missile was launched from Florida, but the target was in Greenland. The impact was in north Brazil and was discovered by a farmer in 1982. There where tests against Ascension Island, but they where hampered by the fact that the maps used to program the missile didn't show the correct location of the island...

A typical CEP for the Snark on a 2,000 mile test flight (the max range was 6,000 miles) was about 20 miles, and the best accuracy it ever showed was still 4.5 miles from the aim point, in contrast to the requirement of a 1,500 foot CEP. Yet despite all that, the thing actually managed to make it into service for a few years.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Ah, yes, that's the one. I was trying to recall which island it was, Greenland certainly is the most extreme failure you can get.

I recall it only ever served from 1958-61 and even then, it was being worked on since '46 and originally was meant to be in by the early fifties to counter any nasty Soviet plans for global domination.