by Anthony Bergin and Michael Shoebridge | Jan 7, 2025 | AUKUS, China, Strategy & Capability
‘Narco-subs’ are semi-submersible vessels drug lords have used for at least a decade to smuggle drugs to Europe or across the Caribbean. They sit just below the water with small chunks of the vessel above it. One intercepted by the Colombian Navy in late 2024 shows...
by Peter Jennings | Jan 7, 2025 | Policy
Investigations into the terror attack on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans continue to move fast, with the emerging picture about the assailant, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, becoming more complex. On Friday morning 3 January AEDT, an FBI spokesman told a...
by Peter Jennings | Jan 3, 2025 | Policy
[Note to SAA readers: This article appeared in The Australian on 03 January 2025. Overnight the FBI investigation of the attack concluded that Shamsud-Din Jabbar probably planted two IEDs in the vicinity of Bourbon Street himself, before engaging in his vehicle...
by Peter Jennings | Jan 2, 2025 | China, Policy, Uncategorized
China’s ambassador Xiao Qian has replaced wolf warrior language with silken tofu. According to his interview with this newspaper’s defence correspondent, Ben Packham, the bilateral relationship has achieved a “full turnaround” from the bad days when Canberra...
by Michael Shoebridge | Dec 20, 2024 | Strategy & Capability
A troubled US Navy frigate program looks like a humming top of efficiency and value compared to our Department of Defence’s $27 billion program to get 3 Hunter class frigates for our Navy. The bad news is the Australian Government isn’t doing anything to change...
by Peter Jennings | Dec 20, 2024 | China, Policy
It seems the Albanese government is happy with, but not proud of, Peter Varghese’s “Independent Review of Commonwealth funding for strategic policy work”, known in Canberra as the “Kill ASPI” review. The government is happy because it got what it asked for – a way to...
by Mike Kelly and Anthony Bergin | Dec 19, 2024 | Policy
In her recent Hawke Oration delivered on Monday night, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said we expect both Russia and China to abide by international law and expect Israel to do the same She has never specified whether Israel is not complying with the law or what law is...
by Peter Jennings | Dec 9, 2024 | Policy
For more than a decade Syria has been a patchwork of contesting tribal loyalties overlaid with the geopolitical ambitions of neighbours and great powers. With the help of Russia and Iran, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad controlled the capital, Damascus, its western...
by Michael Shoebridge | Dec 5, 2024 | Defence Budget, Policy, Strategy & Capability
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...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Dec 1, 2024 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
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...
