Articles

By LT Robert “Jake” Bebber USN and Professor Richard J. Harknett The United States has been operating without a Grand Strategy for nearly 25 years. First, it was essentially on auto-pilot in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union (the grand strategic endstate of containment) and then post-9/11 it became tactically oriented in reacting to global terrorism.

Aidan Morrison recently attended the official Defence Industry Briefing in Sydney for not one, but two major ship-building projects: SEA 1180, the Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV); and SEA 5000, the Future Frigate. At times. We reconvened at 10:00am to hear from the project directors themselves. At times brevity turned from refreshing to alarming, he writes.

* IF the RAN holds firm to the Barracuda Shortfin Block 1A concept offered by DCNS it will acquire an orphan no informed Navy would contemplate commissioning into service. It will own a submarine that will be expensive to build, maintain and operate. It will be a Class that has no equals—sadly for all the wrong reasons, former ASC managing director Hans J. Ohff writes.

THE Indian Ocean together with the maritime area of the Asia-Pacific should be on the high priority list for the next Administration. The region has been witnessing a twin factor rise in its importance: the rise in trade transmission through the Indian Ocean has increased tremendously over the past decade, besides witnessing a dramatic ascendancy in strategic importance owing to vulnerabilities of geographic choke points and more importantly, an ever increasing Chinese presence, Vivek Mishra writes.

Kim Beazley writes that he was permitted a point of pride late last year when reports came in that Australia’s decoy rocket, Nulka, diverted a missile attack on the American warship USS Mason off the coast of Yemen. As always, success has a hundred fathers, and credit for the failed missile attack is also being claimed for a couple of fired SM-2s and an evolved Seasparrow. An investigation is underway.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday promised Vietnam six new patrol boats during a visit to the Southeast Asian country, which is locked...

Pakistan's Arabian Sea port of Gwadar is perched on the world's energy jugular. Nearby sea lanes carry most of China's oil imports; any disruption...

China has handed over two ships to the Pakistan Navy to safeguard the strategic Gwadar port and trade routes under the $46 billion China—Pakistan...

By Dr Tom Lewis OUTSIDE Darwin’s harbour, an enormous Japanese submarine still lies with her 80-man crew on board. Sunk 75 years ago this week, on 20 January 1942, she is part of the secret history of the assaults on northern Australia.

The Menzies Research Centre's National Security Network will hold an event with the Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne, on Tuesday, 14 February 2017....