The limits of Australia’s defence diplomacy

Defence diplomacy has many important benefits, not least in helping other countries facing large-scale disasters. These endeavours enhance security and indirectly generate confidence, resilience and goodwill but expectations of their impacts need to remain modest and fixed on short- to medium-term security goals.

Australia needs a clear national security strategy

Australia needs to move towards a holistic security strategy directed much more specifically by government. And this must start with an acknowledgement of the principal threats to Australia in a changing strategic environment.

Australia should double its defence budget

Despite the Coalition’s modernising programs and extra money currently allocated to building new ships, we need a navy and a defence budget commensurate with a worsening strategic situation.

Why we need a radically new defence policy

Australia’s international security outlook is starting to look very unpredictable and potentially threatening. Australian defence planners must now deal with a world which is very different from any they have known before.

The mangled myths dogging the joint strike fighter

With the RAAF’s first two operational joint strike fighters arriving in early December, long-time critics have launched a fresh wave of claims that the aircraft is a disaster, but are any of these assertions actually true?

Knights in shining armour: AFVs in the Australian Army

The Australian army has always been curiously reluctant to commit tanks and armoured vehicles to the battlefield, but far from being obsolete, armour continues to play a vital role in modern counter-insurgency and warfare.

Australian ingenuity is still flying high

Lockheed Martin’s chief executive in Australia, Vince Di Pietro, praises Australia’s record of innovation in the past and looks forward to a bright future of technological co-operation with the USA.

The special forces controversy raises questions about strategy

Cycling some of our most talented and motivated people through an endless series of deployments, with no clear goal beyond continuing to do them, cannot be sustained.

Don’t rush to judge our special forces

Allegations of serious misconduct against Australia’s special forces should be handled with greater consideration for the reputation of soldiers who have done no wrong.

Are we preparing to fight the wrong war?

Are we preparing to fight the wrong war? That’s the question being asked increasingly frequently by Australian defence planners, especially in the RAAF. What makes some people nervous are a number of emerging disruptive technologies that will have a profound effect on military operations in the very near future.

Defence backs the U.N. women, peace and security agenda

Australia’s first female Defence Minister, Marise Payne, underlines the role which Australia and the ADF play in supporting the U.N. Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

Time for a New Space strategy for Defence

Space is opening up commercially and militarily which Adam Gilmour, CEO & Founder of Gilmour Space Technologies, suggests is the perfect time for Australian Defence to look at the capability of home-grown companies for new technologies.