Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a A$38 billion ($27.8 billion) expansion of the military, which he said would be the biggest increase in the country’s defense forces since the Vietnam War.
The government is planning to lift the number of uniformed personnel in the Australian military to about 80,000, a rise of 18,500 or by nearly a third, by 2040, Morrison said at a press conference in Queensland Thursday. It would be the “biggest increase in the size of our defense forces in peacetime in Australian history,” he said.
