For the best part of 50 years, NATO has maintained a standing force of mine countermeasure vessels at the ready to respond to a mining incident in the English Channel and approaches. The force originally …
At the end of April, two upgraded Chinese Type-094 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) reportedly went into service. But China’s SSBN capability is a far less important component of its nuclear deterrent than its land-based …
There’s a big international weapons program that probably doesn’t pass the post-coronavirus pub test for supply chain security. As US President Donald Trump’s recently said, ‘It’s a certain fighter jet, I won’t tell you which, …
Tuesday 12 May was to have been budget night, until Covid-19 intervened and the government moved the 2020–21 budget release to 6 October. This gives Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his team time to focus …
Covid-19 might be dominating the headlines these days, but other important issues still play out in the smaller font sizes. In last month’s executive summary of the 2020 edition of the US State Department’s annual …
China finally achieved an operational underwater nuclear capability in recent years, almost six decades after it first launched its nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program in the late 1950s. The deployment of the Jin-class (Type …
Sea state Two upgraded Jin-class submarines have entered service in the Chinese navy. The nuclear-powered submarines are the latest in a series of significant additions to the People’s Liberation Army Navy over the past year. …
When the renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes was asked what he did when the facts changed, he replied: ‘I change my mind. What do you do?’ I’m not sure whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison …
In October 2019, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds announced that ‘Defence is working through a re-assessment of the strategic underpinnings of the 2016 Defence White Paper’. The review was to be completed in early 2020. Given …
Amid rapid geopolitical change at the start of the 2020s, unfolding now in the Covid-19 crisis, nuclear weapons manifest grim continuity with the previous century. Especially persistent is a capability that has existed since the …
Commentary on equipping the Australian Defence Force tends to focus on high-end combat capabilities such as frigates, fighter aircraft and armoured vehicles. Much less is written about the assets and infrastructure that support those capabilities. …
Australia has so far managed the Covid-19 pandemic as well as anywhere else on the planet, except perhaps our near neighbour New Zealand or the vibrant techno-democracy of Taiwan. That’s lucky, because if our federal, …