Articles by: "Andrew Davies"
Future submarines

Today’s White Paper launch saw the two ‘lower’ options for the future submarine taken off the table. We now know that the RAN’s future boats won’t be an existing off-the-shelf design or a relatively modest …

12 more Super Hornets

The decision to buy 12 more Super Hornets (in this case EA-18G ‘Growler’ electronic warfare models) which was announced today essentially consolidates the initial decision made in 2006 by the Howard Government. And it’s been …

Cutting our cloth – part II

In my previous post, I found myself agreeing with Jim Molan that the ADF was in danger of entering a period of serious decline in its ability to maintain capability. The combination of tight budgets and …

Cutting our cloth – part I

Jim Molan wrote recently that the ADF is ‘…being pushed into a state where its capabilities are at, or will soon be at, a state from which they will not be able to be revived …

Table of the week – recent defence budgets

As Graeme Dobell’s account of Defence Minister Stephen Smith’s speech suggests, there was scepticism in the audience about his claim that the defence budget over the past twelve years averaged out at a little over …

Graph of the week – Moore’s Law

This week’s graph isn’t news in its own right. Moore’s Law—which exists in various formulations—concerns the rate of increase in computer performance. It’s well known and has been around for almost fifty years now. But …

US–Australia military interoperability II

In his recent summary of his Alliance 21 paper for this blog, ADM Gary Roughead cogently explained why Australia and the United States benefit from high levels of military interoperability. He also suggested several fertile …

Introducing the Alliance 21 series

In March 2011, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard recognised the importance of the Australia–United States alliance by funding the three-year Alliance 21 project. Led by the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, …

Marines in Darwin – make it so

We’re in Washington this week for the Alliance 21 project being run by the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. It’s an interesting time to be in Washington. Over the next 24 hours the US budget negotiations will come …