ARTICLES
PM’s reshuffle a recipe for blame shifting
Anthony Albanese’s ministerial reshuffle weakens the Department of Home Affairs, gives Defence two ministers in cabinet – a recipe for blame shifting – and leaves the Prime Minister without policymaking heft across national security. Instead, we have a gaggle of...
The Great Debate series: a (civil) nuclear debate?
The Great Debates: a civil nuclear debate | RSS.com Episode 1 of the Great Debate series - on topics in Australia that need discussion but are reduced to shouting matches from inside closed bubbles. Green shirted Marcus is Mr Renewables and black suited Michael is the...
AI revolutionises maritime intelligence
Piracy, drug trafficking, people smuggling and illegal fishing are among the many maritime security challenges faced in the Indian Ocean. Many littoral countries are increasingly aware of the importance of Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) as a foundation for effective...
The Naval tsunami that’ll swamp industry and starve the rest of the ADF
There’s a tsunami coming. It’s the huge surge of work needed to deliver Australia’s naval capability plan. Unlike most tsunamis, however, we have some idea of the size of what’s coming. It’s already visible on the horizon. Whether we are prepared for it is another...
Post-shot US election update, Ukrainian & Ozzie drones, spies and public money
Post-shot US election update, Ukrainian & Ozzie dr | RSS.com Marcus and Michael discuss the US election & the alliance post debate and failed assassination, before covering Ukraine military assistance and the alternative realities in Australia's contribution to...
Parliament House protest should be treated as a serious breach
Peter Jennings highlights the problems of protecting Australia’s Parliament House in the light of pro-Palestine protestors gaining access to the roof. Total security can be achieved but only at a cost to the operation and image of the site. The key is finding an...
Success with armed drones comes from numbers and domestic production, not small US contracts
Australia’s Department of Defence has found a way to buy a small number of small Switchblade armed drones from a US company. In the world of drone warfare, our military will need many different types of drone and they will use and lose lots of them in any...
SSN-AUKUS: a ‘mature’ design…just with many defining things not settled.
What is SSN-AUKUS? This is not a metaphysical question along the lines of what is the meaning of life, or even that other perplexing one, namely what is AUKUS? It’s a straightforward question about what the design of the nuclear-powered submarine that Australia and...
Anthony Albanese’s chronic inertia on Palestine fans the flames of violence
Australia’s “new” Parliament House was designed to be an open building where citizens could literally walk over the heads of their elected representatives along two sweeping plains of grass that define the Senate and House of Representatives’ offices. Completed in...
A changed America and a less constrained President
The latest US Supreme Court decision granting US Presidents wide ranging immunities even when committing criminal acts will further divide America, but it also empowers the Trump campaign. It will encourage Trump to wield Presidential power without constraint if he is...
Grumpy Strategist Makers’ Series – the workforce edition with KINEXUS
The Grumpy Strategists | RSS.com In Episode 5, SAA's Marcus Hellyer talks with Rob Kremer, Kinexus' Director and Defence Sector lead about defence industry prospects and pressures. Rob puts the workforce demands by Defence into a wider economic and societal...
Forget the media circus, Julian Assange put our brave soldiers’ lives in danger
Julian Assange emerged from his charter jet in Canberra on Wednesday night in a dark suit, white shirt and thin tie, raising his right arm in a clenched-fist salute. Perhaps Assange wanted to echo the image of Nelson Mandela walking out of the Victor Verster prison on...
Consequences, consequences: budget settings starve the Air Force & a bureaucracy avoids scrutiny
Structural troubles ahead: a starving Air Force & | RSS.com The Grumpy Strategists outline the structural consequences for the Air Force from the new permanent spend on ships & subs in the Defence budget. They cover another structural issue damaging Australia's...
The enduring structural distortion from the ADF’s shipbuilding plans
The Australian government has given up on the idea of designing the Australian Defence Force to be a ‘balanced’ force. Rather, the ADF is to become a ‘focused’ force, ‘designed to address Australia’s most significant strategic risks’ through the ‘impactful projection...
The trap of silence
Some head-of-state, and head-of-government, visits are not like others. Generally, Australians are fairly relaxed when it comes to such matters. But there are occasions where such a visit will stir differing communities to active protest or generate public...
A rusted out hulk is where China’s brazen violence can fail – obviously and in plain sight.
As we watch the brazen violence of the Chinese coastguard around the Philippines' 2nd Thomas Shoal, we are witnessing a real time policy failure by countries who believe in a Free and Open Indo Pacific and a failure in collective security efforts to deter China from...
‘Girt by Sea: Re-imagining Australia’s Security Policy’ & ‘Understanding Maritime Security’
Largely because of our lack of a maritime culture, insular attitudes and failure to see Australia as a maritime power, we’ve so far failed in our defence and foreign policies to fully comprehend the security significance of the oceans. For Australia, almost everything...
Cracks in the ‘stabilised’ relationship exposed during Premier Li’s triumphal Australian visit
Premier Li’s triumphal visit to Australia was meant to mark another waypoint on the journey to a stabilised Australia-China relationship. Instead, it shows a trajectory of intimidation and silencing of our government, along with a slow motion loss of self...
Episode 20: Cringers, crawlers, walkers & runners with a dash of AI, cults, conspiracies, pyramids & portals.
Episode 20: Cringers, crawlers, walkers & runners | RSS.com The Grumpy Strategists look at the emerging cult of AUKUS & its faith-based arrangements. They also set out who is going to win the US election using very dubious 'psycho social analysis' from Michael's...
Albanese’s three fudges on China yield nothing — and weaken us
The price Australia pays for Anthony Albanese’s stabilised engagement with communist China is that all substance is drained from the relationship. That’s why the most concrete aim mentioned by the Prime Minister in his commentary piece in The Australian last Wednesday...
Australia’s defence in an age of empires – an unready nation
Is Australia ready for conflict in an age of empires? Briefly: no. Australian strategy and policy, most recently articulated in the National Defence Strategy (NDS), is solidly grounded in the post-World War II, even post-Cold War, Westphalian world view. It is...
Collins subs life extension realities & Permits for Everyone: the lazy new SAMS law
Episode 19 - Collins subs life extension realities | RSS.com In Episode 19, the Grumpy Strategists set out practical ways that $multibillion plans for keeping Australia's Collins class subs operating will need to change to enable the AUKUS Virginia class subs to be...
This trial hasn’t finished Trump — it has invigorated him
It remains to be seen if Donald Trump’s conviction on felony counts in a New York courtroom will have any material impact on the US presidential election in November. It’s clear many American voters would prefer different candidates. At least they can vote: the rest...
What role should the Collins Life of Type Extension play in Australia’s submarine transition?
Key Points The plan to put all six Collins-class submarines through an extensive and risky life of type extension (LOTE) that could keep some in service well into the 2040s is an artefact of the previous submarine transition plan that aimed to reach a fleet of 12...
The Musk Algorithm and the Sabotage Manual from WW2: which best explains your organisation?
“If you have never been punched in the nose, you have no idea how it affects the rest of your life” is how Elon Musk explains his childhood and introduces us to what drives him in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk’s career so far. I started reading the...
The Grumpy Strategist Makers’ Series Episode 4 – Austal
The Grumpy Strategist Makers' Series Episode - Aus | RSS.com Michael Shoebridge talks with Paddy Gregg, CEO of Austal, about the company's history as a builder of commercial and military vessels for decades now. We discuss its stocked up order book both here & in...
Defence Force recruiting crisis: It’s time to recruit applicants who aren’t citizens
An important policy change set out in the 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) has been largely overlooked. The NDS states that Defence must fundamentally transform its recruitment practices and that this requires developing options for recruiting, where appropriate,...
Twelve questions for the Defence portfolio’s Senate estimates hearings
These questions are based on the information contained in the 2024 National Defence Statement (NDS), 2024 Integrated Investment Program (IIP) and 2024-25 Defence portfolio budget statements (PBS). Note: In this essay, ‘this year’ refers to the 2024-25 budget year....
General purpose frigates: avoiding failure by fixing a troubled start
In February, the Albanese government’s Deputy Prime Minister (and Defence Minister) Richard Marles announced that Defence would be taking delivery of the first of 11 new ‘general purpose frigates’ this decade, with three of the ships to be delivered to the Navy by...
New president gives Australia chance to step up engagement with democratic Taiwan
On Monday 20 May, Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, was inaugurated as president of Taiwan, the self-ruling island of 23 million people. For the Democratic Progressive Party this is an unprecedented third term in the presidential palace, despite losing its...