Media reports this week have claimed that Prime Minister Scott Morrison has commissioned a Defence Department review into potential alternatives to the Attack-class submarine. That’s prompted a flurry of speculation about whether the government is …
Articles by: "Marcus Hellyer"
The Australian government has released its mid-year budget update in the form of the portfolio additional estimates statements. If you’re looking for screaming headline material in the defence portfolio’s PAES you may be disappointed. But …
In my most recent article, I noted that the Department of Defence appears to be in the early stages of identifying a ship-launched land-attack missile for acquisition. The government assessed in its 2020 defence strategic …
Last month, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds put out a media release announcing a boost to Australia’s maritime security. Its focus was the navy’s weapons program. The announcement had a medley of numbers—a $1 billion investment …
The most often quoted line of the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu is that ‘supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting’. By that measure, the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation …
Last month, I looked at Defence’s growing external workforce, in particular its 6,500 or so contractors, who provide ‘skills that would normally be maintained in the Australian Public Service or Australian Defence Force … to …
Originally published 26 May 2020. 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, …
In the first part of this series we saw that Australia’s Defence Department is increasingly reliant on a large number of contractors that are costing a lot of money. Should we be worried about this …
One of the more interesting numbers released by Defence this year was the size of its external workforce, which the department is now measuring through a biannual census. The total number is 28,632 full-time equivalent …
In the first two parts of this series, I looked at what we’ve learned recently about Defence’s naval shipbuilding enterprise and how the Hunter-class frigates are coming along. Now let’s turn to what’s happening with …
In the first part of this series, I looked at what we’ve learned recently about Defence’s naval shipbuilding enterprise. In this instalment and the next one, I’ll focus on what we’ve learned about individual projects, …
There are a lot of moving parts involved in the ramp-up of the government’s naval shipbuilding enterprise. It’s hard for anybody to keep track of them all, particularly as new pieces of information are sporadically …