By Robbin Laird In his presentation to the Williams Foundation seminar held on September 28, 2022, the head of Force Design in the Australian Department of Defence, MAJGEN Anthony Rawlins, addressed directly the question of how the ADF could realistically and effectively ramp up its capabilities in the mid-term. This…
By Robbin Laird After the Williams Foundation Seminar held on September 28, 2022, I had a chance to discuss some of the takeaways with regard to the way ahead for Australian defence with my colleague Air Vice-Marshal (Retired) John Blackburn. We started by focusing on how in reshaping the ADF…
By Pierre Tran Paris – MARTAC, a private U.S. company, displayed its Mantas uncrewed surface vessel (USV) for the first time at the Euronaval trade show, which opened Oct. 18. at Le Bourget, just outside the capital. A civil version of the Mantas T12 vessel in distinctive bright yellow and…
By Robbin Laird Dr. Dupont provided the launch presentation for the recent Williams Foundation Seminar held on September 28, 2022. That seminar focused on key questions and challenges facing the ADF as it addressed the shift to focus primarily on the direct defense of Australia. In his presentation, Dupont provided…
By Pierre Tran Paris – The arms industry and the armed forces ministry are holding talks on how to share the financial risk of building up stocks of weapons, as France moves toward what it calls a war economy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Who takes on the commercial…
By Robbin Laird In his presentation at the recent Indian Ocean Defence & Security Conference, the recently appointed Chief of Army, Lt. General Simon Stuart highlighted how he saw the way ahead for the Australian Army. “War is a national endeavour, and as a so-called middle power, we fight alongside…
By Robbin Laird At the Williams Foundation Seminar held on September 28, 2002, the new Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, underscored that Australia faced a significant range of challenges to the nation associated with threats emanating from the Indo-Pacific region. As he put it: Australia is a paradox.…
By Robbin Laird During my September 2022 trip to Australia in my role as a Research Fellow of the Williams Foundation, I wrote the report for the September 28, 2022 seminar and engaged in discussions during the month focused on the nature of the challenges facing Australia and the need…
