The recently published history of the British submarine service since 1945, The Silent Deep by Peter Hennessy and James Jinks, contains much food for thought for those interested in Australia’s future submarine capability. One particular …
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The current controversy over Australia’s Future Submarine Program, its schedule and the associated life-of-type of the current Collins class has resulted in much hyperbole as to the difficulties associated with keeping elderly boats in operation. …
One of the questions I’m sometimes asked is ‘why do we call 6,000 ton warships frigates’? The implicit assumption behind the question is that the frigates of the past were vessels of modest size, and …
2015 is the year that saw Government announce that Continuous Shipbuilding will be a permanent feature in the nation’s industrial landscape – surely, this is not an outlandish notion for a maritime nation. To understand …
In a recent comment piece in The Australian, Peter Jennings urges action in the South China Sea. He’s quite correct. China’s island-building activities are clearly demonstrating Beijing’s determination to fundamentally alter the current situation by …
Command and control were key naval unknowns in August 1914. What hadn’t been properly appreciated in set-piece, largely visually conducted exercises before the war were the problems with radio. The full conceptual and practical difficulties …
In my earlier article, I argued that Australia’s most important sea-trade during a time of crisis in Asia is likely to be high-value, low-volume importation of machinery and industrial equipment from Europe and North America. …
The fascinating debate on the worth of Australia building the Future Frigates as part of SEA 5000 between Hugh White and James Goldrick (see here, here , here and here ) highlights the issue of …
It’s an irony of history that we no longer comprehend much of the way in which ships were worked and fought in 1914-1918. Indeed, the interest in the Nelsonic era and the combination of extensive …
Hugh White’s equally ‘spirited’ response to my critique raises several questions in my mind. Unsurprisingly, I differ with him on several points. I accept—and have said elsewhere—that, unlike on land, the defence has no inherent …
As always, one admires James Goldrick’s spirited defence of the importance of sea control to Australia’s defence strategy, and of the priority for major warships in our force structure. He suspects sceptics like me of …
It all seemed so much easier in the old days. Equipment got old and it was replaced, like for like. Not always of course. Remember we used to have an aircraft carrier? In fact, at …