Why are we paying $200 million to store torpedoes for the US Navy?

Written by: Nick G. on 25 March 2025

(Image source: Australia Pacific Defence Reporter)

Two days ago, the Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery, Pat Conroy announced the purchase from the US of $200 million worth of Lockheed Martin MK-48  Heavy Weight Torpedoes. 

Conroy stated that the torpedoes would be “a critical boost to the defensive and offensive capabilities of Australia’s Collins class submarines. The MK-48 will also be used on Australia’s future nuclear-powered submarines.”

He also noted that the MK-48 is the product of a “joint program between the Australian Government and United States Government. This involves the joint development of MK-48 hardware and software...”

The torpedoes will be sent in sections that are assembled and tested at the Torpedo Maintenance Facility in Western Australia, which is also certified to assemble, maintain and test the weapon for use in United States Navy platforms.

This very brief statement did not include the glowing praise for the deal outlined on the US online Breaking Defence website.

According to this website, a spokesperson from the Strategic Analysis Australia thinktank said, “Essentially you can take an RAN torpedo that has been maintained and stored at HMAS Stirling and load it into a US Navy submarine. More Mk-48 torpedoes in Australia’s inventory means we can provide them to USN submarines that are part of Submarine Rotation Force-West .”

So, we are purchasing torpedoes which we helped design and build so that in addition to placing them on Australian submarines, they can be part of a joint, shared inventory at no cost to the US.

The joint US-Australia MK48 project was entered into on March 21, 2003.

It was further defined in a Defense Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Australia signed in 2009. According to this MOU, the two countries were to share in financing the project on the basis of an 85:15 US:Australia ratio. Between 2010 and 2019, Australia agreed to pay US$61.089 million 

The testing of various iterations of the MK-48 have taken place in the US and at the Torpedo Analysis Facility (TAF), located at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Edinburgh, South Australia.  More recently, the Australian testing is to be done in Western Australia, as noted above.

Why was the torpedo purchase as a joint warstock inventory of interoperable and interchangeable US and Australia navies not mentioned in Conroy’s press statement?

If the AUKUS arrangements fall apart, as many predict, and the life of extension modifications to the existing Collins class subs do not keep them in service for more than a few years, who has operational control of $200 million worth of MK-48 torpedoes warehoused in WA?

Are we really doing anything more than once again subsidising the US war machine?

We need to break free from our subservience to the US and achieve a genuine national independence and sovereignty. 

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