A dangerous dependency: American defence trade and its impact on Australian strategy and capability, 1941–2020

The military relationship with the United States of America (USA) has been central to Australia’s security planning since 1941. Consequently, Australia has been heavily dependent on American intelligence, protection and defence equipment for 80 years. The reliance on advanced weapons has generated a defence trade relationship based predominantly on the one-way trade of military goods. This overemphasis on US defence items has had a negative impact on Canberra’s ability to meet the threats of the early to mid-21st century. In particular, Australia’s dependence on American weaponry has contributed to the degradation of its sovereign military and industrial capabilities. To accurately measure the impact of this reliance, this thesis will analyse the major purchases from America across different eras to determine their degree of influence on spending, industry policy, autonomous development, capability development and strategy formulation. Concerns about Australia’s strategic manoeuvrability has subsequently generated procurement debates between those pushing for higher interoperability with the US and those desiring more locally developed capabilities. The debates have primarily concentrated on specific defence concepts, weapon systems and isolated periods. Conversely, this study examines historical trends and the key enablers of Washington’s global supply chain. The US supply chain acts as the hierarchal basis of the Australian-American defence trade relationship and is based on US global strategy, expeditionary warfare, regional security and national capabilities. This study uses the global supply chain hierarchy, in alignment with rival non-US procurement options, to analyse Canberra’s major procurement decisions from 1941 to 2020 as case studies to determine the true impact of US defence trade on Australia’s independent ability to defend itself.