HMAS Sydney fires Royal Australian Navy’s first Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) near Hawaii during Exercise Pacific Dragon 2024. (ADF LSIS Daniel Goodman)
SYDNEY — Australia today announced a massive $7 billion AUD ($4.68 billion USD) investment in SM-2 IIIC and SM-6 missiles for its Navy, solidifying a commitment to buying the US-made long-range precision weapons while boosting the sea service’s ability to defend against ballistic missile attacks.
“The Standard Missile 6 and Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC will enable our Navy to strike maritime, land and air targets at long-range, and provide a terminal ballistic missile defense capability, boosting the capacity for the ADF to safeguard Australians and their interests,” Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a Monday statement.
“The SM-2 IIIC and SM-6 are the most advanced air and missile defense weapons in the world and will be progressively deployed across Navy’s Hobart class destroyers and in the future, the Hunter class frigates,” Marles continued. “This follows the recent successful test firing of a SM-6 from HMAS Sydney.”
Australia’s minister for defense procurement, Pat Conroy, noted in a statement that, “Australia was the first country, other than the United States, to fire the SM–6 missile, underscoring the strength of our alliance.”
In terms of capability, SM-2 IIIC adds active seeker technology and “significantly enhanced defensive capabilities against missile threats,” per the statement. The SM-6 will give Australia’s missile defense more depth because of its increased range, the government release says.
The announcement is a culmination of years of interest in the weapons from the Lucky Country. In August 2021, the US State Department approved a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) case for “services related to the future purchase of” SM-6 and SM-2 IIIC. That agreement was for just $350 million USD, but likely helped pave a path forward for today’s announcement.
While today’s statement doesn’t say so, it’s likely this is a also an FMS case, which will include training, spare parts, manuals and other incidentals. FMS cases mean the US government serves as the go-between for the company — in this case, missile-produced Raytheon — and the foreign buyer. While FMS cases need to be approved by Congress, that is unlikely to be an issue here given the widespread support for military relations with Australia.
The SM-2 was the subject of a production shutdown in 2013, when international demand sagged. However, production has since resumed, and the first successful test of a missile from the line occurred in 2020. More than 12,000 of these air defense missile have been delivered, and according to Raytheon, other foreign users include Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Spain and Taiwan, with Chile and Denmark also planning to purchase the weapon. Australia has operated earlier SM-2 model missiles since at least 2010.
The US Navy fired SM-2 missiles to intercept anti-ship missiles and drones in the Red Sea in early 2024 to defend against attacks by Houthi rebels targeting commercial vessels transiting the waterway.
In a recent op-ed, noted defense budget expert Mackenzie Eaglen pointed to what she called the “dire” missile production problems of the US Navy, including across the Standard Missile line.
Eaglen notes that SM-6 procurement for the US Navy is “expected to increase to 300 missiles by 2029” but that these rates “pale in comparison to those of the past. For example, in 1985 alone, President Reagan requested 1,380 SM-2s—over 10 times this administration’s Standard Missile request.”
The Australian orders, for which no production numbers were provided by the government in its release, should help bolster both the SM-2 and SM-6 production lines.
