Recent developments in the Defence Department’s planning for the land domain illustrate the disjuncture between the high-level policy directions in the 2020 defence strategic update that accurately assess our strategic situation, and the capability investment …
The 2020 defence strategic update represents a remarkable commitment by the Australian government to sustained growth in the defence budget. Released on 1 July after months of bad economic news caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and …
The big question heading into the defence strategic update that Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched yesterday was what impact the Covid-19 crisis would have on the defence budget. The answer is none whatsoever. Ministers had …
I noted in the previous post in this series that planned increases to the Defence Department budget are concentrated in its capital investment program, which rises to nearly 40% of the total budget. Since the …
Australia can acquire extra maritime capability quickly and affordably while promoting local industry and the government’s continuous naval shipbuilding plan. My new ASPI report, From concentrated vulnerability to distributed lethality—or how to get more maritime …
In the first post in this series, I noted that, so far, the government remains committed to the 10-year defence funding line it presented in the 2016 defence white paper. That funding line is likely …
For years Australian universities have exposed themselves to excessive dependence on revenue from international students, particularly from the People’s Republic of China. Unconstrained growth in this sector is changing everything from the design of Australia’s …
There’s a big international weapons program that probably doesn’t pass the post-coronavirus pub test for supply chain security. As US President Donald Trump’s recently said, ‘It’s a certain fighter jet, I won’t tell you which, …
Tuesday 12 May was to have been budget night, until Covid-19 intervened and the government moved the 2020–21 budget release to 6 October. This gives Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his team time to focus …
In the first part of this series, we saw that by late 2015, before the Defence Department had received industry responses in the competitive evaluation process for selecting the designer and builder of the future …
There have been claims in the media and by various commentators that the cost of Australia’s future submarine program has gone up. The Defence Department insists that it hasn’t. So, who’s right? Unfortunately, nothing is …
In the viral outbreak of prognosticating about what the future beyond coronavirus should look like, there’s virtual unanimity about the need for countries to have supplies of essential items at the ready for crises. To …
