Simultaneous shifts in the character of warfare and in the international system are heightening Australia’s risk of strategic surprise. Changes in one domain could unexpectedly coalesce with changes in another, rendering the country suddenly more …
The Strategist on: "ASPI Defence Conference 2026"
The Australian Defence Force is on a strong trajectory to become an integrated force greater than the sum of its parts, incorporating all five domains. Competition for people and resources across the domains will continue, …
Australia’s strategic thinking, increasingly focused on deterrence, has yet to distinguish the conditions that make deterrence effective from the framework through which Australia intends to implement it. Elements of both are evident in Australia’s National …
Generating operational mass in the Indo-Pacific requires new approaches to projecting, sustaining and employing military power across vast distances and contested environments. This must be achieved despite constraints in workforce and industrial capacity that can …
In his fireside with former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon at the 2026 ASPI Defence Conference, Senator James Paterson took the view that Australia’s political and military leaders had arrived at a largely correct diagnosis of …
The success of Australia’s nuclear submarine program will depend on whether workforce, education and migration policy can keep pace with defence ambition. AUKUS, especially its submarine element, Pillar One, has become much more than a …
While Australia correctly prioritises the development of domestic industry, the Australian Defence Force is not a sufficient customer to sustain deep industrial capacity across every capability. A central takeaway, from multiple sessions at the 2026 …
There is growing debate within the global space policy community about whether space is becoming a ‘warfighting domain’. As adversaries develop increasingly sophisticated counterspace capabilities, Australia should consider how to strengthen resilience and assure access …
There’s a saying about submarine warfare: ‘there are two types of naval vessels – submarines and targets.’ Nuclear-powered submarines, SSNs, are the true apex predator of the oceans in war. The chief of the Royal …
The adaptive, risk-reducing process known as spiral development will increasingly feature in Australian military acquisition, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy told the ASPI Defence Conference on Thursday. A rapid, ongoing project for counter-drone capability was …
AUKUS Pillar One will keep Australia in a shrinking group of countries operating submarines in coming decades, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told the ASPI Defence Conference on Thursday. Submarines would become harder to operate, …