by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 17, 2024 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
The post Budget blues edition: Backloaded cash wit | RSS.com In Episode 18, the Grumpy Strategists look at the challenges, contradictions and half truths the numbers in the 2024 Defence Budget reveal. The headline early $5.7 billion turns out not to turn up until...
by Marcus Hellyer | May 15, 2024 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Strategy & Capability
The name of the project to deliver Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) is now public: DEF 1. It’s an appropriate moniker for the one program destined to rule all of Defence. With the Defence portfolio budget statements (PBS) coming only a few weeks after the...
by Mike Kelly and Anthony Bergin | May 14, 2024 | Policy
Australia’s Chief of Defence Force General Angus Campbell recently described the challenge of “truth decay”, where misinformation and emotions often intersect. This has played out in recent incidents in Bondi Junction and Western Sydney. An innocent person’s...
by Michael Shoebridge | May 11, 2024 | China, Indo Pacific, Strategy & Capability
The latest dangerous aggression by China’s military against Australia’s defence personnel – dropping flares in front of a Navy helicopter enforcing United Nations sanctions – showed us two things. Xi Jinping is happy to see his fighter pilots and ship captains acting...
by Marcus Hellyer | May 9, 2024 | Uncategorized
Last week Strategic Analysis Australia published an analysis of the dollars in the Government’s new public version of the Defence Integrated Investment Program (IIP) that it released along with its National Defence Strategy. This week we’ll look at the capabilities...
by Peter Jennings | May 9, 2024 | China, Strategy & Capability
Defence Minister Richard Marles was absolutely right to call out China publicly for the “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” in which a People’s Liberation Army jet dropped flares in the flight path of an Australian helicopter operating off the air warfare...
by Michael Shoebridge | May 8, 2024 | Uncategorized
Anthony Albanese lost control of ‘the voice’ referendum by his failure to lead the community. Now his government has lost control of how chunks of Australian society are reacting to the war in the Middle East. This time it isn’t about some political debate...
by Michael Shoebridge | May 7, 2024 | China, Indo Pacific, Policy
It shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that a Chinese jet has endangered an Australian Navy helicopter and the lives of its crew by unprofessional flying and launching flares in front of it in the Yellow Sea. This is just one of hundreds of similar aggressive and...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 6, 2024 | Defence Budget, Podcasts, Policy, Strategy & Capability
The numerology of Australia’s new National Defence | RSS.com In Episode 17, Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge assess the foundations of defence minister Richard Marles’ new National Defence Strategy, looking for clarity and focus that the welter of...
by Lesley Seebeck | May 4, 2024 | Policy, Strategy & Capability, Ukraine
Years ago, a task often assigned graduates newly arrived in Defence was to draft responses to letters from the public. Responses would be composed by stitching together relevant ‘standard paragraphs’—pre-agreed words to common issues or concerns—then dispatched to the...
