The five-domains update
Posted By
Tracy Beattie, Hal Crichton-Standish, Daria Impiombato, Alexandra Pascoe and Albert Zhang
on May 26, 2020 @ 13:09
Sea state
The Royal Australian Navy has unveiled the last of its three Hobart-class
guided missile destroyers, HMAS
Sydney. The other two ships in the
series are HMAS
Hobart and HMAS
Brisbane, and all three feature the Aegis combat system. The new vessel is the fifth ship to bear the Sydney name; three earlier ships were decommissioned and one, HMAS
Sydney (II), was
sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser
Kormoran during World War II.
The US Navy has
completed a test of a powerful laser designed to take out enemy aircraft.
Videos of the demonstrations show what’s known as a solid-state laser being fired from USS
Portland and shooting down a drone mid-air. The US Navy has claimed that lasers will help it
redefine naval warfare, with hopes that the technology may be effective in defending against targets ranging from drones and small boats to long-range missiles.
Flight path
Lockheed Martin will
miss this year’s delivery targets for F-35 fighters due to global supply chain disruptions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. The delay, which was announced days after President Donald Trump
suggested moving more of the jet’s production to the US, will
affect a number of countries, likely including Australia, which was due to accept 15 new F-35s next year.
The US has
announced its intention to withdraw from the 2002 Treaty on Open Skies, which allows its 35 signatories to conduct unarmed surveillance flights over other participant countries. The US State Department
says the treaty has ‘been twisted and perverted in its implementation and now serves Russian purposes inimical to [international] security’. Russia has
dismissed these claims and says it will uphold the treaty. Arms-control experts have
raised concerns about the US withdrawal,
arguing that the treaty has aided transparency and stability.
Rapid fire
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang says Covid-19
will not affect the 2020 budget of the People’s Liberation Army. Defence spending will grow by 6.6% on the prior year, a smaller increase than previously forecast, but still
significant, especially in light of an expected contraction of the broader economy. Despite a
lack of transparency from the Chinese government on funding allocations, experts
say that the budget will be spent mainly in two areas—conventional warfare and non-conventional threats such as terrorism. Other items slated to receive defence funding are humanitarian assistance, epidemic prevention, and new equipment, improved training and pay rises for personnel.
A new US government
report has found that women still account for less than 17% of all active military personnel. The army
scored second lowest for number of women, at 15.1%, and the Marine Corps was lowest at 8.6%. The study found that the promotion rate for female officers was around 5 percentage points higher than for male officers. However, the proportion of enlisted men receiving promotions was higher than for their female counterparts. Women are more likely than men to leave the military before retirement, which makes it less likely that they’ll reach leadership roles. Family issues and sexual assault were the main reasons women gave for dropping out. The report recommends that the military focus on women’s retention as well as recruitment.
Final frontier
A KPMG
report has identified significant opportunities and challenges for the Australian space industry. The report contains insights from 30 experts and leaders in the field and makes 30 predictions for 2030, including that every business across all industries will benefit from space enterprises and that manufacturing in space will be real and viable. Australia has a strong and growing $5 billion space sector that is bolstered by the
Australian civil space strategy.
Japan has
launched a new space defence unit, the ‘Space Operations Squadron’. It will be part of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and its primary role will be to protect Japanese satellites from adversarial threats and space debris. Based in Tokyo, the unit will cooperate and train with the US Space Command and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono
says the group should be fully operational by 2023 and aims to launch its first satellite by 2026.
Wired watchtower
Pressure from backbench MPs has forced the UK government to conduct a new
review into 5G, paving the way for a reduction in the
presence of Huawei technology in the country’s 5G network to zero by 2023. The original plan was to cap the Chinese-owned company’s involvement at a 35% market share. However,
sentiment against the Chinese government has hardened amid the Covid-19 pandemic and, along with the threat of US
sanctions, led to a change in the UK’s position. This has been coupled with more discussion in the UK about reducing the country’s
economic dependence on China.
The federal opposition has raised concerns about a lack of accountability from Australian government entities that repeatedly
perform poorly on cybersecurity resilience audits. The
Australian National Audit Office has found low levels of compliance with cybersecurity standards among certain agencies and departments, despite internal assessments indicating otherwise. Shadow assistant cybersecurity minister Tim Watts is calling for changes to reporting requirements and increased transparency as a way to create better outcomes.
Tracy Beattie, Hal Crichton-Standish, Daria Impiombato, Alexandra Pascoe and Albert Zhang are research interns at ASPI. Image: Department of Defence.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-five-domains-update-103/
[1] guided missile destroyers: https://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/news/defence-news/2020/may-2020/8441-australian-navy-has-commissioned-on-sea-air-warfare-destroyer-hmas-sydney-v.html
[2] series: https://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-sydney-v
[3] sunk: https://www.navyhistory.org.au/naval-heritage-sites/hmas-sydney-ii-and-the-hsk-kormoran-shipwreck-sites/
[4] completed: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/12280740
[5] Videos : https://www.businessinsider.com.au/us-navy-ship-destroys-drone-with-laser-weapon-2020-5?r=US&IR=T
[6] redefine: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/22/asia/us-navy-lwsd-laser-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
[7] miss: https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2020/05/19/lockheed-to-slow-f-35-production-as-supply-chain-struggles-to-keep-up/
[8] suggested: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-15/trump-considering-moving-f-35-production-jobs-out-of-australia/12252384
[9] affect: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/coronavirus-could-cause-budget-blowout-on-military-projects/12268432
[10] announced: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52760420
[11] says: https://www.state.gov/on-the-treaty-on-open-skies/
[12] dismissed: https://tass.com/politics/1159533
[13] raised: https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1263477230258343937?s=20
[14] arguing: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/america-cannot-afford-leave-open-skies-treaty-106986
[15] will not affect: https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/05/22/china-announces-1782-billion-military-budget/
[16] significant: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/china-raises-2020-defence-spending-military-budget-12758618
[17] lack of transparency: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-known-unknowns-of-chinas-defence-budget/
[18] say: https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1189159.shtml
[19] report: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-61?utm_campaign=usgao_email&utm_content=topic_natldefense&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
[20] scored: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/05/20/the-military-needs-a-real-plan-to-recruit-and-retain-women-report-finds/
[21] report: https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/au/pdf/2020/30-voices-on-2030-future-of-space.pdf
[22] Australian civil space strategy: https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/australian-civil-space-strategy-2019-2028
[23] launched: https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/05/18/japan-launches-new-unit-to-boost-defense-in-space/
[24] says: https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/japan-space-operations-squadron/
[25] review into 5G: https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/uk-reviews-huawei-decision-in-the-wake-of-coronavirus-pandemic-20200525-p54vzx.html
[26] presence of Huawei technology: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/22/boris-johnson-forced-to-reduce-huaweis-role-in-uks-5g-networks
[27] sentiment: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52792587
[28] sanctions: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/24/cyber-security-review-may-lead-to-huawei-loss-of-uk-5g-deal
[29] economic dependence on China: https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/23/uk-government-reverses-course-on-huaweis-involvement-in-5g-networks/
[30] perform poorly on cybersecurity: https://www.zdnet.com/article/labor-wants-to-name-and-shame-poor-commonwealth-entity-cyber-posture/
[31] Australian National Audit Office: https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/cyber-resilience-2017-18#9-1-self-assessmentspreviousauditsandcybersecurityculture