Australia targets 3% defense spending amid drone warfare shift
Australia will raise military spending to 3% of its gross domestic product by 2033 as part of a sweeping update to its defense strategy that will include expanding investments in drones and autonomous systems — a shift also underway in Japan.The increase, the nation’s biggest ever in peacetime, will be driven by an additional 14 billion Australian dollars ($10.6 billion) in funding over the next four years and AU$53 billion over the next decade, which would push total defense spending to AU$887 billion through 2035-36.“International norms that once constrained the use of force and military coercion continue to erode,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said Thursday in a speech as he unveiled his country’s latest National Defence Strategy (NDS) and Integrated Investment Program (IIP).
