{"id":542064,"date":"2026-03-15T14:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542064\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T14:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:00:16","slug":"australia-navy-too-weak-to-pick-up-trumps-call-for-navies-to-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542064\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia navy too weak to pick up Trump\u2019s call for navies to Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Royal Australian Navy is not well resourced enough to be able to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz even if the US were to ask for Australian assistance to stabilise the critical shipping channel, defence experts have warned.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump over the weekend asked China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others to send ships to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have stopped oil tankers from going through, sending the price of oil soaring.<\/p>\n

Australia has not received any requests and the Albanese government is unlikely to offer any help even if asked, The Australian understands.<\/p>\n

And over the weekend, the US struck Iranian military infrastructure on Kharg Island<\/a>, which hosts the country\u2019s main oil export terminal. Mr Trump threatened to further weaken oil infrastructure if Iran did not let commercial ships path through the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

The Iranian regime\u2019s move to choke the key shipping lane has brought home the cost of the war to the rest of the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur navy is not in a state to contribute anything,\u201d Strategic Analysis Australia director Michael Shoebridge said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur military is in such a weak state that we don\u2019t have much to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defence and maritime security expert Jennifer Parker said it wouldn\u2019t be in Australia\u2019s interest to send a ship even if Australia were called on because of the state of the navy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe current state of the navy and the impact this would have on preparedness \u2013 it\u2019s probably not in our interests,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Two years ago, the Albanese government did not send a warship to the Red Sea<\/a> despite the US request to fight off attacks on commercial shipping by Iran-backed Houthis and instead deployed personnel.<\/p>\n

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson said Australia\u2019s primary strategic focus should be in the Indo-Pacific and that any request by the US should be \u201cassessed against our national interest and the availability of naval assets\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Parker said the RAN \u201chas the least amount of surface combatants it\u2019s had since, I would say, World War II, certainly since the 1950s\u201d and that it would be in Australia\u2019s interest to send a warship as part of a US-led coalition that could actually restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz were the navy better resourced. \u201cIt has 10 surface combatants. Seven of those are quite old \u2026 the Anzac-class. Three of those are very modern, capable warships, the Hobart-class,\u201d she said. \u201cSo those (ships) are going through a series of upgrades. The three Hobart-class need to have their combat systems upgraded over the next few years to be able to enhance their ballistic missile capability. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Anzac-class are having all sorts of upgrades done to them. Now, if we send ships over there to provide a contribution that would materially change the outcome or they\u2019re good experience for us, we may undermine actually trying to upgrade and enhance the preparedness of our ships and operating them in the Indo-Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she was doubtful whether a US-led coalition in the Strait of Hormuz would actually make a sizeable difference to the volume of oil going through. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d only be getting a couple of tankers through,\u201d she said. \u201cNormally, that strait would have 20 to 30 oil tankers going through in a day, nearly 100 ships all up. You\u2019re not going to be able to get 20 to 30 oil tankers through in a day. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnless you\u2019ve reduced Iran\u2019s (unmanned surface vehicle) and (unmanned aerial vehicle) capabilities along the coast, you\u2019re not going to be getting significant numbers through to really change the oil problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Shoebridge said it was \u201cinteresting\u201d that Australia was not in the list of countries from which Mr Trump demanded support. \u201cWe\u2019re clearly not an ally that comes to mind for Donald Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/a><\/p>\n

Noah Yim is a reporter at The Australian’s Canberra press gallery bureau. He previously worked out of the newspaper’s Sydney newsroom. He joined The Australian following News Corp’s 2022 cadetship program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Royal Australian Navy is not well resourced enough to be able to send warships to the Strait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2095,1724,64,63,689,268611,268600,221872,512,268610,268601,268605,268616,2490,9239,2057,2592,268607,268604,77340,941,242927,268615,268609,71509,268608,44,2041,2067,3583,677,266723,268602,268613,117388,268612,38907,268606,5813,268603,268614,3586,2614,2062],"class_list":["post-542064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-america","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-assistance","tag-ballistic-missile-capability","tag-board-of-peace","tag-china","tag-class-frigate","tag-combat-systems","tag-commercial-ships-path","tag-defence-experts","tag-donald-trump","tag-eastern-asia","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-fuel-led-inflation-spike","tag-iranian-military-infrastructure","tag-james-paterson","tag-japan","tag-jennifer-parker","tag-key-shipping-lane","tag-maritime-security-expert","tag-michael-shoebridge","tag-missiles-looks","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-oil-infrastructure","tag-oil-problem","tag-oil-spiking","tag-oil-tankers","tag-opposition-defence-spokesman","tag-royal-australian-navy","tag-shipping-channel","tag-south-korea","tag-struck-iranian-military","tag-surface-combatants","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}