The authors of the new Defence White Paper deserve our sympathy. They have to address the widest range of challenges to our national security that has ever been faced. We may be out of the …
When commentators argue that the government should determine the designer and builder of the Future Submarine Program (FSP) via a competitive Project Definition Study (PDS), they seem to forget—or don’t know—that the SEA 1114 PDS …
Welcome to the first Suggests of 2016, straight to you from Washington, DC. Kicking off today is the unfortunate news of a terrorist attack on the Sarinah Mall in downtown Jakarta. In an interview with The …
In February 2015 the then-Abbott Government initiated the selection of an international partner for Australia’s future submarine program by inviting French, German and Japanese interests to participate in a Competitive Evaluation Process (CEP). Swedish interests …
According to the newspapers, the government’s Competitive Evaluation Process (CEP) for the Collins replacement yielded bids of between $10 and $12 billion for eight boats, with the price for 12 boats below $15 billion. Delighted …
Political controversy, design issues and a logistics foul up, including a failure to allocate the resources to sustain the capability—there are some strikingly familiar themes in the acquisition of Australia’s first submarines, two 700-tonne E-class …
Sea State Last week, China’s military carried out war games in the disputed South China Sea, with warships, submarines and fighter jets simulating cruise missile strikes on ships. The warships simulated the defeat of anti-ship …
In his recent post here on The Strategist, Professor Mark Beeson raises a number of questions which, he believes, we usually overlook in our rush to address more immediate policy debates. His central question—from the …
With the Government confirming that it has received three proposals under the future submarine competitive evaluation process (CEP) it’s worth considering where we’re headed. There’s a consensus emerging among analysts and commentators that the CEP …
Welcome back to another round-up of reading picks, podcasts and videos in security and defence. America is not ready to fight today’s ‘grey war’s, says former US Special Operations Commander Eric T. Olsen. Defined as conflicts …
It’s been 40 years since a UK defence review meant much to Australia and the Asia–Pacific, but the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, released last month, signals a sea change. …
Does New Zealand have a more realistic view of its strategic environment than Australia? Given that many hard-headed Australian strategists think that New Zealand freeloads on Australia’s security efforts, even raising such a question will …