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Ships still have a place at sea
Brendan Nicholson | February 23, 2024Despite the growing lethality of anti-ship missiles and hunter-killer submarines, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, the head of Australia’s Navy, firmly believes that surface sea power still has a major role to play in modern conflicts.
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Is bigger big enough?
Malcolm Davis | February 22, 2024The Federal Government’s plan to expand Australian naval power is welcome, although the review tacitly accepts that a lack of manpower is as big a problem as a lack of modern ships and missile firepower.
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Navy 2.0
Peter Layton | February 21, 2024The Federal government has unveiled its plan to revamp the Australian Navy, but given the struggles of recent ship procurement projects, will it solve our current problems – or just create new ones?
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Final voyage
Jennifer Parker | February 10, 2024The 60th anniversary of the loss of HMAS Voyager after a collision with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne prompts us to remember the 82 brave men who lost their lives in peacetime as they trained to defend their country.
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Australia’s vanishing surface fleet
Kim Beazley | January 22, 2024Australia’s navy is a fraction of its former size, and the focus on nuclear powered hunter killer submarines means there is little money left to expand the number of surface combatants.
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Navy blues
Bob Ford | December 24, 2023Australia’s failure to contribute a ship to allied efforts in the Red Sea to protect civilian shipping exemplifies a broader failure to support our allies and invest properly in naval capability.
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Reviving the Royal Australian Fleet Auxiliary
Jennifer Parker | October 16, 2023In an era of reduced strategic warning time, bold decisions are necessary and risk must be accepted to gain strategic and operational advantage. Re-establishing the Royal Australian Fleet Auxiliary is an option worth considering.
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Australian sea power
David Shackleton | February 18, 2023Bulking up the number of missile cells on new Australian ships will help our Navy deliver the firepower required to take on peer combatants on the world’s oceans.
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That sinking feeling
Andrew Davies | January 14, 2022The vulnerability of surface ships to attacks by air and submarine has been clear since the Second World War and Australia’s small number of high value naval assets might be exposed in any future conflict with a sophisticated adversary.
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Get on board with unmanned systems
Malcolm Davis | November 19, 2019The Department of Defence needs to consider the role of unmanned systems, not just as a niche capability akin to a small recoverable torpedo, but as an entirely new class of primary military capability for the Australian Defence Force.
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Australia’s expanding navy helps us play a larger regional role
Brendan Nicholson | October 9, 2019The Royal Australian Navy is building relationships with allies and gaining experience in an increasingly complex and uncertain Indo-Pacific region.
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Do it right in defence
Andrew Davies | August 2, 2019Australia must think hard about the capabilities that will best enable our forces to prosecute the most vital missions against our most likely adversaries.