OPINIONS

Role of Australia in Indo-Pacific Strategy

Source

China Military Online

Editor

Li Jiayao

Time

2022-08-26 

By Wu Minwe

On August 19, a multinational military exercise code-named “Pitch Black 2022” led by Australia kicked off, with armed forces from 17 countries in North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia involved. The exercise is a three-week multi-national exercise conducted primarily from RAAF Base Darwin, RAAF Base Tindal, and surrounding areas.

The 17 participating countries in Exercise Pitch Black 2022 include Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, ROK, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, marking the largest number of participating countries, with over 100 military aircraft and about 2,500 military personnel involved. In particular, Japan and ROK in East Asia attended the event for the first time.

Although the Australian military acts as the main organizer of the exercise, the US and NATO have instigated the event from behind, with the core purpose of implementing the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy focusing on containing China. Its specific impact may roughly be summarized into three points as follows.

First, Exercise Pitch Black, a biennial one, is in concert with the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise from south to north. The US-led RIMPAC 2022 was held in waters around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California region from June 29 to August 4. The participating countries of RIMPAC 2022 have basically been those participating in the Exercise Pitch Black 2022. RIMPAC 2022 has mainly been a joint maritime military exercise in the northern Pacific Ocean, and Exercise Pitch Black 2022 is mainly an aerial military exercise in the southern Pacific Ocean. Besides, the two have been launched in succession, the concertation is clearly visible.

The US, long having the distinction of being the “world police”, has obviously declined in strength inrecent years, though its ever-intensive implementation of the Indo-Pacific Strategy. This means that the US interest in becoming the “police of the Pacific Ocean” is undiminished; meanwhile, Australia has often called itself “deputy sheriff” of the Pacific Ocean, which makes the Exercise Pitch Black 2022 seem to be a way of fulfilling Australia’s “duty” as the so-called deputy sheriff in the region.

Second, the US may consider Australia as a rear base for its Indo-Pacific Strategy. As for the countries engaged in the Indo-Pacific Strategy and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) mechanism led by the US, India is quite limited in projecting sea and air forces to the Pacific region. Japan and the ROK are too close to China in geography, and the forces and military bases they have deployed may not be so capable and mighty to survive in wartime. In modern warfare, there is a huge demand for fuel, equipment and weapon parts, as well as medical support such as treatment and recuperation of the wounded and sick. It thus can be seen clearly, the role of Australia, which is relatively far away from China, as a rear base of the Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Third, Australia may serve as an “air combat command and dispatch center” in implementing the Indo-Pacific Strategy. As the Indo-Pacific Strategy is in a confrontation environment of high intensity, it is indispensable to resort to precision strikes, long-range strikes, and decapitation operations. In the confrontation of the type, the army, naval, and air force bases that are relatively close will all turn out to be possible targets of opponent, in particular command posts of diverse variety. In this regard, the US military intends to deploy land, sea, and air combat forces in a decentralized manner, and achieve combat formation during the process of combat preparation and long-range raid, so as to avoid being annihilated by the opponent’s long-range precision fires in the process of combat preparation and force formation.

In this regard, Australia still has a greater probability of survival and remaining safe given its distance. If the “air combat command and dispatch center” is set in Australia, it the US can realize command and dispatch of the air force stationed in Australia with high flexibility, and have the ability to command, dispatch, group for combat and assign combat missions to the combat aircraft dispersed in the US bases in Japan, the ROK, Guam and other areas. And the Exercise Pitch Black 2022 provides a good oppotunity for an air combat exercise.

(The author is from College of Information and Communication, National University of Defense Technology)

Editor's note: This article is originally published on news.youth.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.