FEATURED ARTICLES
The Gulf collective defence exercise: a war no one admits to fighting
The Gulf collective defence exercise: a war no one | RSS.com Marcus calls into the Grumpy Strategists' Brindabella bunker with unwelcome news on more diesel supplies. After this disappointment, the Grumpies ponder the mystery of the Gulf War - a war...
Tired of winning: US government shows how to lose an industry & hurt its friends
We’re told the Trump Administration is playing 16-dimensional chess in its reshaping of the world economy to make America great again. But the chess moves we’ve seen so far in the key auto manufacturing sector are damaging own goals that hurt...
Our Kentucky Colonel masters deflection, the War & AUKUS sub outcomes – magical thinking meets US & UK partner realities
Our Kentucky Colonel masters deflection, the War & | RSS.com Well, despite the great news from Energy Minister Chris Bowen that Australia faces no energy crisis other than silly unwashed Australians panicking, the Iran War has already created a...
AUKUS submarines: US and UK partners show the realities facing Australia’s small fleet
In 2056, 30 years from now, when Australia has eight nuclear powered submarines (SSNs), we will have two deployable submarines consistently available. That’s assuming all goes well with AUKUS’ “optimal pathway” and we do in fact have eight SSNs in...
Sea lanes, straits & subs: How many nuclear subs to open Hormuz?
The war between the US, Israel and Iran is now entering its fourth week, and despite the loss of many senior figures, the Iranian regime survives. It is very difficult to bomb people into democracy. And so this war risks becoming a trial of...
The tragic death of the Major Projects Report: a crime with 3 culprits & 27 million victims
6 March 2026 is the day we can say that transparency around Australia’s Department of Defence died, or more accurately, was executed. It’s now sleeping with the fishes, mafioso style. On a Friday, the traditional day for burying controversial...
A lonely America experiences its unipolar moment
Donald Trump’s greatest legacy is not going to be some kind of American economic renewal. It will be an America that is alone. His America First instincts have now reached a peak with his war against Iran. Aside from his Israeli partner, who...
Victory in the War for Influence & Invoicing: Australia’s Mandarin Advisory Complex at work in two reports
Victory in the War for Influence & Invoicing: Aust | RSS.com President Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address warning of the US Military Industrial Complex echoes in Canberra today - but with industry and products replaced in the Canberra version by...
Trump the unilateralist becomes Trump the multilateralist – for now
After making a global mess, US President Donald Trump wants everyone else to clean it up. Luckily for the Albanese government – but also as a reward for their steadfast pursuit of a perfect, early 2000s-style small military sometime in the late...
With the Wedgetail deployment, Australia is now part of the Iran War
Is it believable that the world’s most advanced airborne early warning and control aircraft, the Royal Australian Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail, is going to be flying around in the Middle East but limited to only providing defensive information about...
The Iran war: Australia joins the “Coalescing of the Partly Willing”
A less needy more capable Australia – recognising the new American reality for allies
It’s time to notice big changes in our world when it comes to how Australia equips its military and spends the $59 billion annual defence budget. As ministers Marles and Conroy put the finishing touches to their brand new National Defence...
Iran War: bad guys, rose petals and donuts – Trump tries for the Big Maduro
Iran War: bad guys, rose petals and donuts - Trump | RSS.com Marcus and Michael reflect on their wisdom in modifying the Grumpies bunker to hold thousands of litres of diesel and 8 pallets of tinned tomatoes, as the war escalates in the Middle East....
The new Trump doctrine: ‘We break it, you own it’
America’s approach to the world has changed fundamentally. The era of its failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is over, along with the big idea behind them. That was then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s famous line “You break it, you own it”,...
Australia’s Defence budget: a sugar hit followed by a $2.6 billion cut. Take that, Mr Trump, sir!
Australia's defence budget update: a sugar hit fol | RSS.com The Grumpy Strategists pan for gold in 234 pages of dense, incoherent Government paperwork setting out the Albanese Government's revised plans for our nation's defence, and find some rather...
Defence’s 2025-26 budget update— billions spent earlier, but billions go out the back door
The Defence portfolio’s mid-year budget update, the Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements (PAES), has dropped and will be discussed at upcoming Senate estimates hearings. The PAES is meant to disclose any changes to the funding picture since the...
The hunt for Defence reform downunder: Mr Conroy & the Yeti. And the mystery of sea control with a tiny fleet
The hunt for Defence reform downunder: Mr Conroy & | RSS.com Marcus & his fellow SES emergency volunteers hunt for the "Biggest Defence Overhaul in 50 years" somewhere deep in the Brindabellas (WARNING: parts of this episode contain disturbing...
Albanese meets Trump: champagne all round – but a harder meeting would’ve been better for Australian security & the alliance
Albanese meets Trump: champagne all round - but a | RSS.com The Grump Strategists move back into their renovated bunker deep in the Brindabellas and assess the finely managed Albanese-Trump meeting. Full marks to PM Albanese and Ambassador Rudd for...
Australian government prefers talking about defence funding over actually spending more.
The Trump administration has been calling on its partners and allies to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP. NATO has agreed to that benchmark, with another 1.5 per cent thrown in for vaguely defined national resilience and critical...
Sovereignty costs. If you won’t pay for it, you don’t have it
Sovereignty was once, fleetingly, the poster child of Australian defence policy and pronouncements. While it continues to be mentioned, it’s now in such a vague and superficial way that it has been emptied of meaning. This is a mistake. Sovereignty...
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