For most of the past decade, Australia’s six Collins class submarines have provided the nation with a fine underwater warfare capability. Designed to meet operational requirements beyond the capabilities of other conventional submarines, the government …
Over the course of the past week we saw a faction within the American polity exhibit collective panic about a Chinese balloon that floated across the US. Whatever the nature of the balloon, the fears …
Just for a change, there’s a bit of heat around discussions of the future of armour and surface ships. I thought ASPI analyst William Leben’s recent Strategist piece was a good one in its attempt …
At an ASPI conference a few years ago, I remarked that I thought that major surface combatants had been obsolete for many decades, and that the only reason we hadn’t noticed was that there hadn’t …
I’ll admit to being surprised when Australia announced the termination of the deal with Naval Group to build the Attack-class submarines. Not because I thought that shouldn’t happen—I’m on the record as saying that it …
The Battle of Britain was the attempt by Hitler’s Luftwaffe in August and September 1940 to neutralise the island nation’s air defences. The aim was to achieve German air superiority over the English Channel and …
Once again there’s a lively debate on the merits of having tanks (and armoured vehicles generally) in the inventory of the Australian Army. And once again both sides are simultaneously right and wrong. In fact, …
I was pleased to become involved when ASPI was asked to run a workshop on secure communication technologies late last year. It’s been a long time since I was in the world of signals intelligence …
It’s always risky to proffer an opinion on the probable impact of a new technology, especially if you aren’t entirely convinced that a much-touted ‘game-changer’ is quite as significant as its proponents would have you …
Originally published 5 November 2019. We’ve known for a while that SEA 1000, the Defence Department’s future submarine program, is going to cost a lot of money—we just haven’t known exactly how much. But as …
We’ve known for a while that SEA 1000, the Defence Department’s future submarine program, is going to cost a lot of money—we just haven’t known exactly how much. But as time moves on and Defence …
In a 1974 article in Aeroplane Monthly, a former Royal Air Force maritime patrol pilot wrote this about his experience flying in World War II: During a period of 1,200 operational hours flown over a …