Australia has been asked to help Gulf nations defend themselves and it’s finding the arms cupboard bare

Australia was among the first countries in the world to express support for the US-led war against Iran, but now that it’s been asked to help Gulf nations defend themselves, it’s finding the cupboard is looking bare for items to send.

Roughly a week after a direct request from the leader of the United Arab Emirates, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed reporting in The Nightly that a world leading Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane will be sent to the region for “offensive” support.

As retired Army General Fergus McLachlan has noted, the E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system is a “world class capability”, and “the most suitable contribution that we could make”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles on Tuesday also confirmed that Australia had agreed to a request from the UAE to supply advanced medium range Air-to-Air missiles, known as AMRAAMs.

Without specifying the type or number of missiles that would be sent, Mr Marles insisted they would be “defensive weapons” and not used against Iranian targets.

The Nightly has confirmed the weapons are coming from the ADF’s “existing supply”, suggesting they are the older C-5 variant of AMRAAMs which are soon expected to expire.

In the past when ageing missile stocks were close to being time-expired, the RAAF used to undertake what were known as a ‘yippee shoot’ where they aim the weapons at target drones to give younger pilots valuable experience.

Instead, Australia is donating the surplus and soon to be expired missiles to a security partner which needs as much munitions as it can get.

Apart from the E-7A Wedgetail and leftover AMRAAMs, there is very little other useful equipment or supplies the ADF can spare, particularly for a modern overseas conflict which involves counter drone and missile warfare.

Military expert Dr Elizabeth Buchanan argues that Washington’s missile stock is not getting replaced at the pace and scale that the global security environment demands.

She warns there is a “widening window of opportunity for Chinese strikes on Taiwan” which is a war certainly much closer to home for the Albanese government.

“This should ring alarm bells for Australia — our principal provider and security underwriter is under strain. And in Trump’s world, America comes first.”

This week General McLachlan has again reminded policy makers that Australia does not yet have what’s known as an integrated air and missile defence (IMAD) system, such as the US produced Patriot or THADD.

He believes IMAD must be a priority for the Albanese government’s next National Defence Strategy due later this year, and recent events in the Middle East have starkly underlined his argument.

Military sources have confirmed that two of Australia’s more modern and heavily armed warships, the Air Warfare Destroyers, are currently out of the water receiving upgrades and much needed maintenance.

Next year the first US nuclear-powered boats are scheduled to begin arriving for Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-W) at HMAS Stirling, but so far there is no word on how soon Australia will have integrated air and missile defence to protect them.

The Albanese government insists it’s also rapidly introducing counter-drone technology into the ADF, but since 2022 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted how far behind Australia is in this cruical aspect of modern warfare.