Colin Clark, the founding editor of Breaking Defense, is now our Indo-Pacific Bureau Chief, based in Sydney, Australia. In addition to his foundational efforts at Breaking Defense, Colin also started DoDBuzz.com, the world’s first all-online defense news website. He’s covered Congress, intelligence and regulatory affairs for Space News; founded and edited the Washington Aerospace Briefing, a newsletter for the space industry; covered national security issues for Congressional Quarterly; and was editor of Defense News. Colin is an avid fisherman, grill genius and wine drinker, all of which are only part of the reason he relishes the opportunity to live in Australia.
cclark@breakingmedia.com
“Right now, of course, the secretary of defense does not have a counterpart; there is no [Chinese] minister of defense. We’re going to have to probably wait on that one,” NSC official Sarah Beran said.
The proposed legislation “expands Australia’s backyard to include the US and the UK, but it raises the fence,” Chennupati Jagadish, Australian Academy of Science’s president, said.
“There’s no more cost that gets added to the program outside that one design zone change, therefore when you consider that as a value for money, it avoids having to complete a brand-new design from ground up,” Craig Lockhart of BAE Systems Australia said.
Babcock Australasia’s Nick Hines said the companies envision an “AUKUS passport” to more easily track skills of the workforce for the subs, allowing the countries to trade workers and fill gaps quickly.
China wants “to create tense, uncomfortable situations in the hope that US and partner forces will vacate the space that every force has a right to be in,” Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo said.
The retired lieutenant general, Peter Leahy, said he doesn’t see “much of a future for defense industry here in Australia, so we’ve got to pick up our game. I don’t think we can be taken seriously in the halls of Washington.”
After a successful “ePrototype,” company is building a full-scale prototype of STRIX and “propulsion testing has taken place on a static rig at our Henderson shipyard in Western Australia,” BAE Systems Australia said.
The investment by Australia and the United States into funding the new Google internet cables means the Pacific islands can avoid becoming integral parts of China’s global data collection.
The news came hours after a Pentagon official said an American delegation would attend a Chinese security conference, amid strained military-to-military relations between Washington and Beijing.
“We know about the disappearances within the PLA and elsewhere. But no one really knows why,” said Ian Chong, associate professor at the National University of Singapore.
“Our investment in reducing our size, weight and power of our Maverick system is really capturing the attention of people over there,” Simon Palumbo, co-founder of Silentium Defence, said.
“I read about so many people in my position, who say, I’m going to triple revenue by whatever. I don’t get into that game. Perhaps that’s because of my defense upbringing. I know how to turn capital into capability. I look at value in a company. Revenue to me is one marker. Value is the most important marker for me,” Warren “Macca” McDonald, CEO of Lockheed Martin Australia, told Breaking Defense.
