I noted with interest and bemusement that the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade has announced an inquiry into the capability of Defence’s physical sciences and engineering (PSE) workforce. I’m interested because in …
Articles by: "Andrew Davies"
Increasing strategic weight in Asia is making its effects felt in new ways. Australians are already familiar with Japan’s more open stance on military exports, with a possible submarine collaboration garnering plenty of local press. …
When I was surveying the communications capability of the ADF back in 2010, I made the following observation: ‘Australian users now have access to the US-built Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) system. This ‘off-the-shelf’ purchase provides …
It has been less than two years since The Strategist provided a new Defence Minister with an incoming brief, but it’s already time to update that for the new incumbent. And that reflects an unhealthy …
Recent comments made by Australian Defence Minister Kevin Andrews regarding the possibility of four nation naval exercises involving Australia, India, Japan and the United States suggest that there might be some interest in Canberra in …
For the past couple of years I’ve been keeping Strategist readers updated with the status of USAF planning for procurement of the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter at each pentagon budget cycle. (See here for 2013 …
I’m in Taiwan this week as a guest of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, speaking at the ROC (Taiwan)–US–Japan Trilateral Security Dialogue, a meeting held annually since 2011. It’s a similar idea to …
Once again, Hugh White has put the cat among the pigeons; this time, by questioning the wisdom of the government’s shipbuilding plans. Within days, we had responses from a retired admiral and no less than …
In my previous post, I described the changes to submarine operations driven by developments surfacing in detection technology. The conclusions were that submarines would have to be able to deliver their effects from greater distances …
As a member of the Defence Minister’s White Paper panel, I’ve had many discussions about issues that paper will wrestle with (and a few that it certainly won’t, but that’s a post for another time). …
The government’s announcement of an ‘$89 billion shipbuilding program’ today is bold on two fronts. First, in the implicit assumption that much of the price premiums paid on past and current projects and the poor …
The recent SDSC–CSIS report The ANZUS alliance in an ascending Asia (PDF) makes an interesting argument about the US–Australia alliance becoming a ‘central hub’ for American policy in the Pacific. We explained yesterday why we …