ARTICLES
Australia’s security race in the South Pacific
Waging a “permanent contest” with China in the South Pacific, Australia is building new alliances and a new security system. Treaties signed with Island states are driven by fear and shock in Canberra, yet also by a sense of responsibility — plus a determination to be...
A welcome Wildcat? Austal, AUKUS and an ownership mud wrestle
Who owns and controls Western Australian shipbuilder Austal matters to Australian, American, Japanese and South Korean national security. And there’s an arm wrestle that looks like turning into a mud wrestle over that question of ownership between Korea’s Hanwha...
AUKUS at 5: Not Dead Yet. Don’t make the rookie error it’s about submarines – it’s about the “Geopolitical Imaginary”…& Dune…
AUKUS at 5: Not Dead Yet. Don't make the rookie er | RSS.com In Episode 82, Marcus scours the garbage bins around government offices in Canberra to feed the SAA bunker's furnaces and so avoid rising energy prices as the Houthis block Red Sea shipments. It's a nervous...
Australian defence business outlook 2026: growing budgets, harder markets
SAA has launched its Outlook for Australian defence businesses, covering the domestic environment, the bigger picture global developments, and approaches to the growth markets in Europe and Japan. The report examines the drivers of the growing global defence spend and...
Australian defence business outlook: The world’s spending more, but the money is getting harder to reach
SAA has launched its Outlook for Australian defence businesses, covering the domestic environment, the bigger picture global developments, and approaches to the growth markets in Europe and Japan. The report examines the drivers of the growing global defence spend and...
The Censorship Edition: slow change accelerates in politics, war, cricket & climate. But Australian Govt censorship just keeps rolling
The Censorship Edition: slow change accelerates in | RSS.com Marcus and Michael broadcast this edition of the Grumpy Strategists from two secure locations: Marcus kicking back birdwatching from SAA's home bunker in the Brindabellas outside Canberra, and from an...
Australia’s two “Wunderwaffen” can’t both be magical: Hunter frigates and AUKUS subs
Australia's two "Wunderwaffen" can't both be magic | RSS.com The Grumpies return to SAA's bunker deep in the Brindabella Hills. It's time to take stock of the $9 billion spent so far on 3 Hunter frigates for Australia's Navy, with $18 billion still to go. The right...
UK Count Binface’s Australian Connection, AUKUS August, and Lethal Wellbeing
UK Count Binface's Australian Connection, AUKUS Au | RSS.com Michael calls in from Count Binface's campaign to beat Reform UK's Nigel Farage in the Clacton by-election. The Grumpies ponder a Binface-type manifesto for Australia - "I will cut your taxes and raise...
AUKUS subs’ temporary base is permanent again: Mr Conroy loses his trousers in Washington, startling Elbridge Colby
AUKUS subs' temporary base is permanent again: Mr | RSS.com Marcus undertakes an emergency mercy flight to Washington DC to comfort and counsel Department of War deputy Elbridge Colby, stunned by the stab in the back from America's Aussie ally on American access to a...
Australia’s AI complacency: PM’s faster horses for the age of aircraft
As the emptiness of the Labor Party’s policy-making conference unfolds in Adelaide, it’s obvious why Australians are looking for alternatives to our major political parties, even as they watch One Nation's Pauline Hanson flit about at Italian fashion shows and her...
Grumpy Strategists episode 77: Those silly Canadians. Drone wars – US joins Ukraine. & Zumwalt: The Expense Continues
Grumpy Strategists episode 77: Those silly Canadia | RSS.com It's a packed episode from the SAA bunker deep in the Brindabella Hills: Marcus gets into the world of high fashion with Gina Rinehart and Pauline Hanson, Michael marvels at Canada's "Three Stupids" from...
Accountability is king, but no one is responsible. The tragedy of Australian Defence leaders forced to waste their time & our money
Accountability is king, but no one is responsible. | RSS.com In Episode 76, the Grumpy Strategists ponder revelations of $29 billion of waste in just some of Australia's big defence projects from Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy. His answer: bold reform that...
Australia needs a new strategy for a new world
In January 2026, and again in March, the world changed dramatically and fundamentally. Since then, changes have since been occurring on an almost daily basis. Actions taken by the United States administration under President Trump have highlighted the flaws in the...
Paperwork v. missiles: Australia, China & neighbourhood security
Right now, unfortunately, Australia is writing security cheques for itself and the South Pacific it can’t cash. That’s the real message behind two major security developments in the Pacific this week. On the day that Australian diplomats were celebrating getting...
Australia’s zombie defence industry policy is rewarmed – the 2026 DIDS reinforces failure.
So, Minister Pat Conroy has released the Australian government’s "new" 2026 Defence Industry Development Strategy, after giving us the highly unsuccessful 2024 version.Unfortunately, the 2026 strategy is a rehash of the 2024 approach, which Mr Conroy has never...
I’m a defence reporter. This is what we’ve already lost to pay for AUKUS
In a recent article, I argued that whilst nuclear-powered submarines are powerful platforms, there are many important things they can’t do, like shoot down drones or remove sea mines (which Iran used to close the strait of Hormuz). SSNs are extremely expensive tools...
Hedging against America, ordering in a time of disorder
The mail arrives, yet the world spins awry. The global rules-based order, which has underpinned Australia’s security and prosperity for decades, is in transition. The end state is difficult to predict. While there will be elements of continuity, the coming decade will...
A tiny fleet of nuclear subs comes at the cost of a weaker Australian military
Three months ago, I asked how many American nuclear-powered submarines it would take to open the Strait of Hormuz. For the record, the US has around 52. Some called this question ridiculous. It seems the point flew over their heads. Of course the question is...
Unaccountable rises: A Defence leadership Trifecta performs at Parliament, while China shifts the ground on AUKUS
Unaccountable rises: A Defence leadership Trifecta | RSS.com Marcus and Michael each pick their three stand out takeaways from Australian Defence officials testimony about delivery and performance to the Parliament. It's hard to pick winners in a field like this, but...
America in Asia: a very different Hegesth to 2025 & regional ordering amongst disorder
America in Asia: a very different Hegesth to 2025 | RSS.com In Grumpy Strategists episode 74, Marcus talks to SAA's man in Singapore, Graeme Dobell, about the dynamics and developments on show at the annual Defence ministers' gathering in Singapore's Shangri-La hotel....
Asia ponders the mystery of our time
“The situation of our time Surrounds us like a baffling crime. There lies the body half-undressed, Until the mystery is solved And under lock and key the cause That makes a nonsense of our laws.” W.H.Auden, January 1, 1940 A mystery of our time is what the United...
What a Taiwan war would mean – missiles, chips & global damage
“The Asia-Pacific can no longer be classified as fully at peace.” from IISS' Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2026 That Asia is no longer fully at peace is the first sentence in the annual security report by the International Institute...
Retreat from Singapore: Richard Marles succeeds in getting all used subs from America. The new ones are rubbish.
Retreat from Singapore: Richard Marles succeeds in | RSS.com In history, a retreat from Singapore can have hairs all over it, but Richard Marles has turned that around, as the Grumpy Strategists unpack the events at Singapore's Shangri-La dialogue. There, Mr Marles...
At sea amid ships, cables & drones – policy announceables from Shangri-La
Maritime matters sailed through the heart of the Shangri-La dialogue, run by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, but the announceables were all at sea. Call it the horror-of-Hormuz effect: when normal ocean traffic is cut, normal life on land suffers....
Submarine plan U-turns: why public trust on AUKUS is falling
Black is white and up is down. There’s a reason Australians are losing trust in their government and in public officials, and it’s been on display in the unhappy land of submarines and our Defence department. In just a few weeks, we’ve had two major U-turns on what...
Hegseth’s Shangri-La: US allies – friends but freeloaders
Australia has just been touched by an old alliance habit—the kick from Washington for being a military freeloader. The free rider whack was one of only two references to Australia made by the US Secretary for War, Pete Hegseth, on stage at Singapore’s Shangri-La...
Defence Senate Estimates 2026: 13 questions for reluctant officials
Strategic Analysis Australia is publishing a baker’s dozen sets of questions on the Defence portfolio that we’d like to know the answers to. Hopefully senators have similar interests and will seek some answers from traditionally reluctant Defence officials. ...
A decade of Collins subs mismanagement results in promotions all round, but alarm bells for AUKUS
Speaking last week, Defence Minister Richard Marles called the Collins class submarines “Australia’s most important military platform”. So it’s more than disturbing to read the ANAO Audit report on the Defence leadership’s disastrous management of the Collins fleet’s...
Australia’s Collins subs life extension scandal: 10 years of failure covered up until the Auditors came – & the UK’s 1st Sea Lord takes truth serum
Australia's Collins subs life extension scandal: 1 | RSS.com Marcus and Michael go through the scandalous revelations about 10 years of failed planning on extending the operational life of the only submarines Australia has - the 6 Collins class - while AUKUS subs...
Defence Budget 2026-27: By the Numbers
This post has an embedded version of Marcus Hellyer's Defence budget Powerpoint slides. The slides tell a disturbing story about Australian military priorities, and the consequences of slowly building a small fleet of expensive warships and nuclear-powered submarines....