Albanese's ‘bizarre' speech hurting Australia's relationship with US
'Why did Albanese make such a bizarre speech,' Mr Sheridan told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio.
'Is he trying to provoke the Americans into killing off AUKUS?
'Albanese, even at the level of politics should be very careful about this though … the American alliance is very popular.'
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'As long as you are visible in the south, China must take care,' he said. 'Another thing (that) Australia can do, even during the war, (it) can do many things with (the Pacific) island nations,' said the retired Admiral, noting the theatre would once again be crucial. 'This war cannot be limited within the so called, 'first island chain,'' he said. 'Definitely it will go out.' While Australia has no formal alliance with Japan, both nations are de-facto allies and economically dependent. Tokyo views Canberra as its second most important strategic relationship behind Washington due to Australia's democratic values and resource wealth. 'The danger is not imminent but visible,' noted the retired admiral. But when it came to grey-zone conflict and espionage, 'the difficult point is what is war now?' he said. JAPAN'S STRATEGY From across the ocean, Japan faces three nuclear armed potential enemies: Russia, North Korea and China. While Australia enjoyed a 'ten-year warning time' Sky News was told for Tokyo, each new decade seemed to usher in a different threat. If war breaks out, the serving admiral told Sky News that Japan would move to immediately lay mines to the north to prevent a Russian response and to its south to lock the PLA Navy within the First Island Chain – thus preventing it from fully breaking out into the Indo-Pacific. Terrified it could be isolated, Japan is building a fleet of fast frigates at a rate of two per year. Production will soon move to three frigates annually across three shipyards. Each new frigate is armed with 16 vertical launch missile cells – double the number of our retiring ANZAC class frigates. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will soon roll out a larger frigate, its Mogami FFM with 32 VLS cells. Japan's naval strategy is to use these frigates - rather than more expensive destroyers - to protect convoys critical to its national survival. It estimates it will have to surround or 'screen' each convoy with between five and eight warships, similar to a carrier strike group. These convoys will have to travel to the middle east for oil and south to Australia. Japan knows it needs our natural gas, coal, iron ore for steel and rare earths for weapons. The Australian government is currently considering the Mogami FFM under its Project Sea 3000 tender along with a German bid by TKMS. What makes Japan's bid unique, however, it that is goes beyond production. Japan seeks to allow Australia to construct the warships to boost allied warfighting capabilities and service its own damaged vessels in the event of conflict. Japan is effectively handing over its intellectual property at a discount rate to maintain its access to the minerals and resources its population needs. With Australia having lost much of its manufacturing sector, and with Defence struggling like other nations to deliver projects on time and budget, Sky News understands Japan's offer is in essence, 'We can design and build the ships you need, just arm yourselves with interoperable weapons to protect the supply lines that will make the defence of both of our nations possible' Jonathan recently travelled to Japan as a guest of its government and major shipbuilder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
