At the April 11, 2024 Williams Foundation seminar, the former head of the Air Warfare Center and now Director General for Air Combat Capability, Air Commodore Ross Bender, addressed the way ahead for the RAAF in dovetailing with the new strategic focus of the Australian government. Bender noted that the…
By Robbin Laird I followed up with Jennifer Parker on April 19, 2024 with regard to her presentation on how to conceptualize Australian maritime strategic interests and strategy. We focused on how she conceptualized the strategy and the needed approach as much wider than a focus on ADF capabilities. We…
By Pierre Tran Paris - Sales and orders of the defense sector of the French aeronautics and space industry fell in 2023 compared to the previous year, while overall sales rose nine percent to €70.2 billion ($75 billion), the chair of the GIFAS trade association told a news conference April…
By Robbin Laird This was the title of the presentation by Chris McInnes, a noted Australian airpower and defence analyst, to the April 11, 2024 Williams Foundation Seminar. He provided an overview of how airpower made unique contributions to Australian defence by providing rapid strike options throughout the Australian areas…
The answer is that it does not look like the defence strategy which has been followed throughout most of the post-war period. The threat envelope is quite different. There is no American and Western managed rules-based order dominating the world. There are diverse authoritarian movements and states which follow their…
During my current visit to Australia, both at the 11 April Williams Foundation Seminar and in my interviews and discussions, there is a clear concern for ramping up ADF capabilities now. In addition to any longer term additive capabilities, it is crucial in the evolving strategic context to find ways…
By Robbin Laird The first of two seminars of the Sir Richard Williams Foundation in 2024 was held on 11 April 2024 at the National Gallery of Australia. The seminar was entitled, "The Multi-Domain Requirements of an Australian Maritime Strategy", and the aim of the seminar was identified as follows:…
By Kenneth Maxwell My observations on Portugal in 1964 typed up on my portable Olivetti typewriter. This evaluation was written ten years before the “Revolution of Carnations” of 1974, when Portuguese junior army officers, tired of endless wars in Africa, overthrew Europe’s oldest dictatorship. This in turn ended Portuguese rule…
