Australian Labor Party debates on defence policy are often full of passion and vigour, especially those involving regional security, nuclear issues and the alliance with the United States. A combination of all three has made …
Articles by: "Peter Dean"
Last month, in my article ‘To corvette or to not corvette: the defence strategic review and the Tier 2 surface combatant’, I outlined some of the debates and one specific option for the independent analysis …
A key part of the government’s response to the defence strategic review (DSR) was the establishment of an independent analysis team to examine the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet and to report back to …
To meet the challenges of expanding high-end military capabilities in the region and the need to significantly increase the Australian Defence Force’s deterrent capabilities, the Australian government should up-end one of the traditional ways it …
Journalist Greg Sheridan is no stranger to controversy in his writing for The Australian on foreign affairs and defence policy, but even he struck a particular chord of controversy recently when he zeroed in on …
The 2020 defence strategic update released last month provides a sobering analysis of Australia’s strategic environment and the risks we must manage. The document lays out a conflation of pressing issues and concludes that ‘major …
Amid the debate last week over the merits of travelling to Washington for the annual AUSMIN talks and donning face masks during a global pandemic, the defence and foreign ministers of Australia and the United …
With RAN’s new amphibious assault ship HMAS Canberra continuing a series of intensive training and assessment periods, and its sister ship HMAS Adelaide readying for commission next year, Australia’s amphibious warfare capability is fast becoming …
The ADF currently lacks the tradition, culture and organisational expertise to maintain and deploy a world class amphibious warfare capability. The current command and control (C2) structures don’t adequately address the high degree of specialisation …
The ADF has developed a detailed, integrated and truly joint plan to develop and validate an impressive amphibious warfare capability by mid-2017 as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre. However this powerful joint force element will …
Peter Jennings is right. Australia is a G20 power and has global interests. But those facts must be set alongside others, not so encouraging, that relate to Australia’s position on the global stage. In all …
In the last post I concentrated on the ADF’s tasks. For this post I will add a few points about the new Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ships. The small ships and catamarans that some have …