by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Sep 12, 2024 | AUKUS, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
Episode 25 -the Army gets wet, while an empty AUKU | RSS.com On the Grumpy Strategists’ 1st birthday, Marcus and Michael assess the Army’s new plan to get wet & find that the Army’s focus is on its exquisite small force, with no plans for...
by Michael Shoebridge | Sep 12, 2024 | Policy
There’s a whole set of political and ethical issues wrapped up in whether protesters like the ones gathered against Melbourne’s large Land Forces defence industry conference are right to confront police with anger, volleys of horse poo and tomatoes and even fires to...
by Marcus Hellyer | Sep 11, 2024 | AUKUS, Policy
Among all the claims made about Australia’s plans to acquire nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) under the AUKUS partnership, one of the most misleading is the suggestion from its supporters that it will generate economic growth. This is fundamentally incorrect. Defence...
by Greg Rose and Anthony Bergin | Sep 7, 2024 | Uncategorized
The difference between a marital commitment and an amorous affair is like the difference between Australian rhetoric and actual support for international law. We utter legal rhetoric about our committed relationship but we do what pleases us whenever convenient. In...
by Peter Jennings | Sep 7, 2024 | Uncategorized
Hamas terrorists killed six hostages in a tunnel deep under Rafah, southern Gaza, minutes before the Israel Defence Forces might have rescued them. One can only imagine the torment these people suffered across 11 months of captivity. This is a new inflection point in...
by Lesley Seebeck | Sep 4, 2024 | AUKUS, China, Policy, Strategy & Capability
Recently, the nuclear debate, such as it is in Australia, has been captured by two significant developments. There are the plans for nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS arrangements. That will entail new skills, capabilities and operational practice on the part...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Aug 29, 2024 | Podcasts, Policy, Strategy & Capability
Makin’ missiles, a business insurgency & schedule | RSS.com Marcus and Michael catch up on news about makin’ missiles, assess whether the secret to change in Defence is a cashed up billionaire, and are bemused by the new ‘Schedule is King’...
by Anthony Bergin | Aug 26, 2024 | Policy
Australia is facing a rising terror threat. This requires our terrorism alert system to be as effective as possible.This month the terrorism threat level was raised from “possible” to “probable”, in our five-level scale of not expected, possible, probable, expected,...
by David Harvey | Aug 23, 2024 | Strategy & Capability
One of the spurious reasons for not using Australian industry in Australian platforms is that there are very few Australian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of the equipment installed in ships, vehicles and aircraft. Yet Defence’s insistence on dealing...
by Marcus Hellyer | Aug 22, 2024 | AUKUS, Strategy & Capability
Earlier this year I started looking at what Bent Flyvbjerg’s analysis of megaprojects can teach us about the Department of Defence’s gigaproject: its efforts to acquire a nuclear-propelled submarine capability (SSN). I’ve wanted to get back to Flyvbjerg for some time,...
