Luke Gosling’s recent Strategist post, mooting Darwin as a forward operating location for Australia’s submarines, sparked a few thoughts. First and foremost, it is refreshing to see Australian MPs sticking their necks out, thinking strategically …
Building on its long history as a forward operating base, Darwin is ready to support our future submarine operations. Though it’s commonly seen as unsuitable as a home port for submarines, that doesn’t disqualify Darwin …
In a 1974 article in Aeroplane Monthly, a former Royal Air Force maritime patrol pilot wrote this about his experience flying in World War II: During a period of 1,200 operational hours flown over a …
Seoul and Tokyo aren’t getting on well. What started as quarrels over whether Japan has shown appropriate contrition for its wartime occupation of Korea has mushroomed into a fierce trade dispute and a suspension of …
Japan’s relationship with South Korea is not amicable at the best of times. Yet in recent months it has entered a rapidly descending diplomatic spiral of unprecedented depth and scope. Mounting bilateral friction over the …
The word on the street is that the government intends to make a decision by Christmas on whether to relocate full-cycle dockings of the Collins-class submarines from Osborne in South Australia to Henderson in Western …
In view of Derek Woolner’s warning last month that the Royal Australian Navy’s new Attack-class submarines will be obsolescent by the time they’re delivered, it’s time to revisit the main storage battery question—including what we’re …
Hugh White’s latest book has stimulated an important debate on the defence capabilities needed to preserve Australia as a sovereign state. In the recent posts on this subject on The Strategist, there’s been recognition of …
As the French launched the first of their Barracuda-class nuclear-powered attack submarines this month, the transfer of advanced intellectual property to Australia for its conventionally powered cousin gathered momentum. So far, 19 engineers from Naval …
Australia must massively reorganise its planned defence structure by selling off most of its surface ships, abandoning those still to be built and replacing them with a fleet of 24 or even 36 submarines and …
Kim Jong-un’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok in late April demonstrated conclusively that the North Korean leader has no intention of retreating from the international stage after February’s ill-fated summit with US …
The future submarine has achieved key milestones with the signing of the overarching strategic partnering agreement on 11 February and in quick succession the design contract on 5 March. This is good news for the …