The irony here is that Australian SSKs routinely do so.
SSNs are just on a right path to ensure it won't happen that often for a decade or two. That's some deterrence on friday(year tba).
Lethe
Captain
Another Chinese vessel in vague proximity to Australia has prompted another hysterical reaction from local media, government and opposition figures. This time, it wasn't even a naval vessel:
Now, 90% of this is naked political posturing in the lead-up to the election to be held next month, but it is, nonetheless, frankly embarrassing, particularly in light of the following:
More details on the multinational expedition from :
Of course, one might well wonder why Australia wasn't represented on this multinational research expedition. Plausible that Beijing might've blocked it, given that it has likely been planned for some time now. Also plausible that we never even tried to engage, a product of the crackdown on all forms of collaborative academic activity with China these past years, exemplified by the closing down of most at Australian universities. Either way, it's clearly our loss.
Now, 90% of this is naked political posturing in the lead-up to the election to be held next month, but it is, nonetheless, frankly embarrassing, particularly in light of the following:
More details on the multinational expedition from :
Of course, one might well wonder why Australia wasn't represented on this multinational research expedition. Plausible that Beijing might've blocked it, given that it has likely been planned for some time now. Also plausible that we never even tried to engage, a product of the crackdown on all forms of collaborative academic activity with China these past years, exemplified by the closing down of most at Australian universities. Either way, it's clearly our loss.
It was actually a little bit closer than in vague proximity
Given that 1 out of the 6 Collins sub is serviceable at the moment I wouldn't be so sure on the 'routine' part.
News broke out yesterday that Russia has requested to base its air assets in Indonesia, which naturally wasn't received well by the Aussies.
It could be a nothing story as Indonesia has denied the claims, and the original source is from Jane's. Doesn't help that Dutton is putting his foot in his mouth by fabricating a statement from the Indonesian President.
The authors, all of whom formerly worked for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, call for defence spending to be put on a rapid trajectory to reach 3 per cent of gross domestic product within the next term of government, taking defence spending from the current $56 billion annually to $84 billion a year.
Credit: Matt Golding
“Australia has no credible argument for continuing to devote such a low share of our national wealth to meeting our security needs, particularly as we now plan to not just have the conventionally equipped military that we’ve maintained for decades but now want to add enormously expensive nuclear-powered submarines into our order of battle,” former Defence official Michael Shoebridge writes in the report funded by defence firms, including Boeing.
The authors acknowledge it would be challenging for the defence force to ramp up spending so quickly given it has missed its acquisition spending targets by a total of $26 billion over the past decade, meaning promised capabilities have not been delivered.
The Coalition has been mulling increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP and has promised to spend $3 billion to buy 28 additional F-35 joint strike fighter jets.
Labor has vowed to lift defence spending from the current 2 per cent of GDP to 2.33 per cent by 2033-34.
Shoebridge argues that Australian defence policy has to be fundamentally rethought because “America is no longer signed up to defending the global rules-based order and has little interest in helping its partners and allies to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Australia should be prepared for the Trump administration to demand payment for joint military and intelligence facilities in Australia – including the secretive Pine Gap intelligence facility – and to seek to renegotiate the AUKUS pact to extract more money from Australia, he writes.
The authors find that 19 of the defence force’s 30 biggest planned acquisitions are set to come from the US, a risky trend given it is becoming a less reliable security partner under Trump.
“Ultimately, we need to hedge our risks and diversify our defence suppliers, in particular local ones,” the authors write.
The report comes as a separate paper by former air force chief Geoff Brown argues that the RAAF should urgently acquire a long-range bomber capable of striking deep into the Indo-Pacific to address a “glaring” capability gap.
In short:
The Coalition will spend an extra $21 billion between now and 2030 to reach its goal of lifting overall military spending.Peter Dutton announced policy details alongside Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie, who has been largely absent from the campaign.