The Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) recently released a couple of reports that should be required reading for anyone thinking about future force structures. Although looking at different domains—one concerns itself with …
Despite press and broadcast reporting that largely focused on the omission of submarines, the RAND report on naval shipbuilding in Australia is a valuable contribution to the discussion of this important public policy issue. No …
It’s good to see that the ‘Option J’ paper Ben Schreer and I wrote is generating responses. Hugh White and Sam Bateman raise concerns about a closer relationship with Japan: both of them argue that …
Last week I described the ‘new’ contestability mechanisms designed into the First Principles Review revamp of the Defence capability process. I observed that the new contestability mechanism closely resembles the old Force Development and Analysis …
By my count, the title page for the first chapter of the new First Principles Review (FPR) of the Department of Defence lists 48 previous reviews dating back to the Tange Review of 1973. You …
There’s a lot in the First Principles Review (FPR) of Defence that was released today. We’ll have more to say about it over the next week or two, but here’s a first look. While there’s …
(Or how I learned to stop worrying about naval power and to love the corvette.) Naval capability decisions start with maritime strategy. So I think we should get one. That’s deliberately provocative, but I struggle …
There’s a lot of talk about submarines again this week thanks to the SubSummit conference in Adelaide. Perhaps not surprisingly given the venue, much of the focus was on the local versus offshore build aspect. …
It’s been on the streets for a while now, but I’ve just got around to the Australian National Audit Office’s most recent annual review of Defence major projects. It’s a thoroughly useful compendium of data …
I explained previously that the US places a premium on having a long-range bomber in inventory, and how big that premium can be. With the B-2, the costs of bomber programs effectively ‘hit the wall’, …
In my previous post on the US Long Range Strike–Bomber (LRS-B), I promised to return to the likely cost-effectiveness of the future system. But first I’m going to back-track to examine the possible costs in …
From the time it came into being in 1947, the United States Air Force has had a state-of-the-art long-range bomber in its inventory. The first was the extraordinary B-36 Peacemaker (see photo)—the name intending to …
