Today’s asymmetric national security environment, characterised by what Foreign Minister Wong recently referred to as ‘grey zone threats’, requires far more than the acquisition of neoteric naval, air, ground, and cyber weapon systems by Australia. …
This week’s unveiling of the expansionary blueprint for Australia’s future naval surface fleet brings with it a golden opportunity to revive defence cooperation between Australia and its occasionally ambivalent ally, New Zealand. Specifically, the announcement …
Collaboration with private and public sector stakeholders is vital for Defence to develop its capabilities, strategies and policies in response to Australia’s changing strategic environment. Getting consultation right will be critical to that. Defence’s need …
The Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant review has laid out plans for the Royal Australian Navy to grow larger, with more firepower in the coming decade to ensure that it can meet the challenges highlighted in the …
The navy is under-gunned for the strategic circumstances Australia faces. For years, commentators have criticised its existing and planned platforms for possessing too few missile cells. Many of them have suggested that the best remedy …
In the coming weeks, a flood of analysis can be expected marking the end of the second year of war in Ukraine. In fact, the war began 10 years ago when Russia seized Crimea …
AUKUS is more than the exquisite capability of submarines. It is an agreement on values that will defend the three partners, the US, UK and Australia, and their regions from the destabilising forces of rising …
Yesterday’s 2+2 ANZMIN meeting of Australian and New Zealand foreign and defence ministers in Melbourne will be viewed as a natural part of an alliance that evokes memories of the Anzacs at Gallipoli and was …
Britain’s Royal Navy has advertised for a suitably experienced individual to fill the role of its director of submarines, a rear admiral who acts as the senior, professional head of its submarine arm. The position …
The Government, and many others, have described the grim parallels between Australia’s present strategic circumstances and those leading up to World War II. As a maritime nation we must ask urgently how we find ourselves …
The December AUKUS Defence Ministers meeting in San Francisco has reinforced the importance of advanced undersea warfare capabilities as a key element of the agreement’s Pillar 2. A particular focus was the role of autonomous …
Last year I wrote the maritime opinion piece on the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) for the WA Defence Review 2022–23 annual issue. In it I opined that there were some promising signs, but I also …
