The government said the funding increase – dramatically named Project REDSPICE (Resilience,Effects,Defence,Space,Intelligence,Cyber,and Enablers) – will significantly expand the ASD’soffensive cyber capabilities,as well as the agency’s ability to prevent hacking and other digital attacks.
The government intends to put national security at the centre of the upcoming election campaign,contrasting its latest announcements with reductions to defence spending during the Rudd-Gillard era.
In hisbudget night speech Treasurer Josh Frydenberg described the $9.9 billion in spending over 10 years as the country’s “biggest ever investment in Australia’s cyber preparedness”.
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It comes on top of the government’s previously announced expansion in Australian Defence Force personnel and the purchase of new Chinook helicopters,Abrams tanks and combat engineering vehicles.
The funding increase will significantly increase Australia’s cyber,data science and intelligence workforce,creating an extra 1900 ASD jobs over the next ten years.
Additional cyber security,cloud computing and information technology jobs will also be created in the private sector.