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 …
Articles by: "Marcus Hellyer"
The following extract is from ASPI’s latest special report, Submarines: Your questions answered, which attempts to answer the many questions that Australians pose when it comes to the design, acquisition, cost, operational service and strategic …
The big defence news in Australia this year was in the 2020 defence strategic update released on 1 July. The update and its accompanying force structure plan ended speculation about the defence budget and reaffirmed the …
In its 2020–21 defence budget, the government hasn’t moved away from its funding commitment in the three months since it released the 2020 defence strategic update. And why would it? If you’re looking like being …
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, …