By Marcus Hellyer The Hunter class’s schedule is under pressure. Granted, the government and Defence are confident they will achieve the milestone of prototyping on schedule by the end of 2020, so pretty much right now. Since that’s purely an exercise in checking that the shipyard’s systems work, it doesn’t…
I am in the throes of finishing up my book on the evolution of Australian defence strategy over the past several years, from 2014 until now. With the announcement of the new government defence strategy by Prime Minister Morrison on July 1, 2020, it seemed a good time to draw…
By defenceWeb In fulfilment of its pledge to provide additional support to enhance the operational efficiency of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), mandated to bring an end to the Boko Haram insurgency, the European Union (EU) has provided command, control, communication and information systems (C3IS) to the Force. In…
By Marcus Hellyer With regard to the offshore patrol vessels and the continuing upgrades to the Collins class submarines, progress continues. Offshore patrol vessels The Australian National Audit Office’s recent performance audit of the OPV project was as positive as any ANAO report I’ve ever seen. When the government announced the winner…
By Robbin Laird The International Fighter Conference 2020 provided insights with regard to the evolution of combat airpower, notably with regard to enablers and effectors, and pathways to shaping greater force integration and multi-domain warfighting capabilities. But to do what exactly? And how best to do it? The clear assumption…
By Robbin Laird The second strand of the International Fighter Conference 2020 was the question of the effectors which could be delivered by the evolution of air combat power, notably leveraging multi-domain capabilities. This strand was woven throughout the day and could be seen in a variety of ways, in…
By Pierre Tran Paris - Airbus Defence and Space expected to sign a contract for a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle in the first quarter of 2021, a deal the company saw as critical for European arms companies, chief executive Dirk Hoke said Dec. 9. “Here, we are very confident…
By Robbin Laird The last two International Fighter Conferences, 2018 and 2019, where very different from this one. And I am not just referring to the virtual nature of the conference. This fighter conference was less about fighters than about the changing context of airpower in terms of what enables…
