Australia has historically taken a stop-start approach to naval shipbuilding, investing in a mixture of domestic- and foreign-sourced warships at uneven increments. The current Australian government is planning to invest tens of billions of dollars …
A debate over the future of US naval fighter jets has been on a slow burn for months, but it’s starting to heat up. There are reports that Boeing is surreptitiously marketing the F/A-18XT or …
In a recent Strategist post, we discussed the pros and cons of different sized unmanned maritime aerial systems. We came down on the side of larger systems. Geoff Slocombe then took issue with our position, …
It seems like everyone’s getting a drone these days. The latest kid on the block is the Navy, which is about to start experimenting with the capabilities of remotely piloted aircraft. Last week, Schiebel announced …
The new US President has taken a very hands-on approach to defence procurement, particularly in the case of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. On December 21, then-President-elect Trump met with the CEO of Lockheed Martin, …
In a recent article for The Strategist, I showed how Russia’s economic woes are negatively affecting plans to modernise the country’s military. In order to be thrifty, Moscow has, for the most part, been investing …
As we wrote back in March, the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee held an inquiry into Australia’s acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The election campaign in the middle of the …
In 2014, the Russian economy faced two major setbacks: international economic sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and a collapse in global oil prices. At the time, crude oil alone represented more than a third …
Analysing Australian defence expenditures is like a game of Battleship. Occasionally you’ll score a hit, but attempting to understand a given acquisition often results in an ineffectual splash. A big part of the problem is …
A recurring objection to the use of unmanned combat air systems (UCAS) for any role currently filled by fighter or attack aircraft is that robots can’t replace human fighter pilots. It’s probably a bit optimistic …
We read Graeme Dunk’s recent post on Defence’s love affair with the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program with interest. In one sense Graeme is right—as we’ve noted previously, there have been some (slightly mysterious) …
There’s renewed interest of late in the US Navy’s electromagnetic railgun. Plans to perform at-sea weapon testing appear to have been delayed in favour of further research. So, while development will probably continue, there are …