FEATURED ARTICLES
18 Ways To Leave Your Lover: a big tech view of the Pentagon
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar has put out a compelling diagnosis of Pentagon capability acquisition and the resulting US defence industry structure. It's called 18 Theses. Don't be put off by the grandiose title echoing Luther's battle against the...
Defence’s disappointing Annual Report & Hypersonic Hyperbole meets Houthi hard work
Defence's disappointing Annual Report & Hypersoni | RSS.com In Episode 30, Marcus and Michael look at what the numbers in Defence's Annual Report tell us about Defence's 'fasttracked' work on missiles, helicopters & ships. The numbers show...
Right Here Right Now: Unleashing Australian know-how to grow military power fast
This is the third report in the IPA-SAA Blueprint for Defence series that provides an action plan for reforming Defence. This new report focuses on what needs to change in how Defence acquires weapons and systems. It sets out how the Government in...
Australia’s Ghost Fleet—The strange saga of the Arafura-class Offshore Patrol Vessels
Last year the US Navy’s Ghost Fleet visited Australia. This squadron consists of uncrewed surface vessels that are capable of long-range autonomous operations, a capability the Royal Australian Navy doesn’t yet have. But Australia does have its own...
Another Brick in the Wall: Education, not control can help young Australians with social media
The Labor government’s mis- and disinformation bill died in the Senate this week and rightly so. The bill was a power grab for information control, giving bureaucrats oversight over how social media platforms would find and fix information...
When free trade ain’t free: Xi Jinping plays pretend with our enthusiastic prime minister
Back in 2017, early into Donald Trump’s first term as US President, China’s Communist Party leader Xi Jinping turned up to the Davos world economic forum and told the assembled corporate heavyweights and global leaders that China embraced...
PM’s precarious US-China juggling is about to reach its use by date
Anthony Albanese described his dialogue with Xi Jinping in Brazil last Monday as “crucial” and his personal engagement with the Chinese leader as steering a “patient, calibrated and deliberate approach (that) created many thousands of new jobs in...
Australia is struggling to address national security challenges posed by critical seabed infrastructure
This week a 1200m undersea fibre-optic cable linking Finland and Germany was severed. The two countries said in a joint statement that they were investigating the incident, which “immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage”. Europe’s...
Where’s the defence dollar going? Not to Australian medium and small companies
Australian defence industry is struggling through a period of cognitive dissonance. The Albanese government keeps declaring that it is spending unprecedented amounts on defence capability, yet Australian medium and small defence firms are struggling,...
Australian government increasingly anti-Israel
As a child growing up in Melbourne, I remember lining up outside the huge display windows of Myer at Christmas, wide-eyed in wonder at the snowy dioramas. This year anti-Israel agitators announced their intent to disrupt the Christmas windows launch...
Rudd dilemma should’ve been resolved long ago — it’s too late now
Our relationship with the US is too important to put on hold while we debate Kevin Rudd’s lengthy record of insulting president-elect Donald Trump. Consider the strategic issues we should be discussing with the incoming administration. On defence,...
Episode 29: Washington cyber hygiene. Military shrinks, plans proliferate. Marles keeps balls in the air
Episode 29: Washington cyber hygiene. Military shr | RSS.com In Episode 29, the Grumpy Strategists answer the call from Australia's Embassy in Washington. They search for meaning in Defence's new religious texts - the Strategic Review and Defence...
Australia’s defence: Trump will notice our grand words aren’t matched by actions
Many people are saying many things about what a second Donald Trump term in the White House might look like. It’s a mug’s game to speculate in areas where we can’t know much. However, on defence budgets and Trump’s expectations for even the...
PM’s secret think tank review: minimising discomfort for ministers & mandarins?
It’s time for the government to spill a secret: whatever happened to its ‘independent review’ of think tanks and universities, and what’s the future for any organisation looking for government funding to continue this work? Back in February, the...
Australian defence policy under a Trump world order
Most commentary thus far has been on how the Australian government will handle a Trump Administration. More will emerge on the implications for Australia, from Trump’s tariff policies to the likely continued decoupling from China, and Trump’s...
The Hulk is back, and he won’t like our defence weakness
During the 2016 presidential election I wrote that the United States desperately needed Captain America but instead got the Incredible Hulk. Now the Hulk is back and even stronger. That’s because he – Donald Trump that is – won both houses of...
Reality Bites: Senate Estimates issues for Defence November 2024
Questions for the 2024-25 Defence portfolio supplementary budget estimates hearings Senate estimates hearings will be held on the Defence portfolio on Wednesday 6 November. Here are some questions we at Strategic Analysis Australia would like to hear...
Episode 28: Sub schedules on fire, Deterrence by Documentation & a guided weapons go slow
Episode 28: Sub schedules on fire, deterrence by d | RSS.com With a fire in the UK's sub construction facility & US sub production slowing, the only good news is that predictions of delay are apparently ahead of schedule....Meanwhile, a new...
A Defence Force that meets Australia’s strategic requirements: Paper 2 in A Blueprint for the Next Government
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) and its strategic outlook are in crisis and urgent action is needed. The key recommendation of this report is that, following the next election, the government must take urgent steps to boost Australian production...
The Defence of Australia: A Blueprint for The Next Government – Paper 1: National Security and Australia’s Northern Defence
The Strategic Analysis Australia team is delighted to be working on a joint project with the Institute of Public Affairs developing a blueprint for the Australian government on defence policy. Our aim is to identify actionable policy recommendations...
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