Sea State Tensions in the South China Sea continue to escalate, with around 100 Chinese ships detected in Malaysian waters near the Luconia Shoals on 24 March. In response, Malaysia sent its Maritime Enforcement Agency …
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Peter Jennings is right to point out that siting surface-to-air missiles (SAM) on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands is a strategic game-changer for the South China Sea. It’s also the logical corollary to building …
A key challenge in the coming years for Australia will be the PLA’s growing ability to project military power beyond what Chinese military thinkers deem to be the first and second island chains (see map …
The 2016 Defence White Paper mentions ‘unmanned’ systems 15 times. The accompanying Integrated Investment Plan (IIP) [pdf] has 39 references. The government has clear ambitions to purchase UAVs for maritime surveillance and airborne strike, with …
Just under a year ago Admiral Harry Harris was the keynote speaker at the ASPI Future Surface Fleet dinner. Immaculately attired in his starched whites he warned—with a firm delivery—that China is building a ‘great …
The current strategic/political argument to buy Japanese submarines doesn’t stand up against a $50+ billion life cycle submarine project for acquisition, sustainment and upgrades which will run until at least until 2060. Alan Behm’s recent …
The US Navy’s USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group has recently concluded a five-day ‘routine patrol’ in the South China Sea. Accompanied by several US vessels based in Japan, at first glance it appears …
The contrast between the replacement for the existing Collins class submarines and the F-111 strike fighter is instructive. Governments didn’t replace the F-111 with the similarly sized F15 fighter, let alone require a much bigger …
Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper states that it’s second Strategic Defence Interest is ‘a secure nearer region, encompassing maritime Southeast Asia and the South Pacific’ (3:68), which includes Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Pacific …
A key aspect of the new Defence White Paper is significant enhancement to ADF force structure. In previous White Papers, a list of four principal tasks has shaped Australian military strategy. In …
On 4 February, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that the US Navy had developed a new anti-ship missile (ASM)—the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6). But that ‘new’ missile isn’t as new as it might …
Beijing has come under increasing international pressure over its building and militarisation of the maritime features it occupies in the Spratly Islands. On 30 January, the US Navy sent a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical …