In the last few weeks, we’ve seen some impressive photographs and the naming ceremony of the first of the 27,000 tonne Canberra class landing helicopter docks (LHDs) coming together in the BAE shipyards in Williamstown. …
The end of amphibious operations has been prophesised at various times during the past century. After the Gallipoli experience in 1915, many military thinkers in Britain and elsewhere believed that airpower, modern artillery, machines guns, …
No doubt the Chinese military was paying attention. Last month the United States disassembled and removed the floating pier it had assembled at a Gaza beach to take aid deliveries. Heavy seas beat it. Such …
The UK’s tilt back to the Indo-Pacific has had no shortage of critics, including in Australia, but it has achieved tangible results and has lifted Britain’s importance in the region. As the frothy post-Brexit rhetoric of Global …
ASPI’s annual conference takes place on 14–15 September at the National Convention Centre in Canberra. The theme is ‘Disruption and deterrence’. Effective deterrence, built upon a strong Australian Defence Force that works closely with allies …
In a year that saw a significant deepening of Japan–Australia relations, a watershed moment of 2022 was the revision of the Japan–Australia Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, first signed in 2007. The revised document lays …
The Strategist has been defence-review-heavy recently. Much of the conversation has centred on conventional land forces and armour in particular. This has been couched in terms of generic land combat rather than in the context …
The terms of reference for the defence strategic review provided by the government to the independent leads are just short of two pages long. The length of this document doesn’t do justice to all that …
Sea state China’s People’s Liberation Army announced fresh military drills near Taiwan on Monday, a day after concluding its largest-ever exercises in six designated areas encircling the island. The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command said the …
The Australian and Japanese prime ministers met virtually on 6 January and signed a reciprocal access agreement (RAA) that makes it easier for each nation’s troops to operate in each other’s country. As important, it …
During Indonesia’s two-year stint on the United Nation’s Security Council (2019–2020), the country made significant gains not just in promoting peacekeeping operations but in augmenting the role of female peacekeepers with the passing of Indonesian-sponsored …
At first glance, given their geographic distance, there seems little pushing France and Indonesia closer together. But from Paris’s perspective, the French territories in the region and the fact that 93% of France’s exclusive economic …