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.
"They've managed to do it. That's the key takeaway," Euan Graham, China export at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said of Taiwan building its first submarine. "And they did it against very strong political headwinds that apparently affected the supply of equipment. This is impressive."
Of 10 advanced sensor tech areas, China leads in seven and the US in three, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
The challenge for Western democratic institutions is not a lack of capability — it is a structural one.
“The purchase of an additional Triton will enhance operations from Australia’s northern bases, a priority under the Defence Strategic Review," Pat Conroy, minister for defense industry, said in a statement.
"It's partly long-lead items but it's also partly working on those yards where our submarines will come out of for us,” Vice Adm. Jonathan Mead told Breaking Defense.
"One of China’s most salient advantages in the competition is its ability to identify and woo both public influencers and elites in [Pacific island] governments, whether via licit or illicit means," MITRE analysts conclude.
The new map sparked sharp reactions from India, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan. The new document was released one week before the G-20 summit in India. President Xi Jinping was to attend but news reports now indicate he will not.
From emerging data networks to missile tracking and cyber resilience, Breaking Defense’s latest eBook brings together essential reporting on the evolving role of satellites in national security.
As Australia hails the Japanese F-35s' arrival, it's also working with another partner, the US, on the much more somber task of investigating the deadly crash of a US Marine V-22.
“This critical capability will allow the ADF to leverage information from across all domains at greater speeds, with better accuracy and at a greater scale than it is capable of today,” Stephanie Hill, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, said in a statement.
"Not only does the Williamtown stealth-coating facility provide Australia with a valuable sovereign capability and cut down on cumbersome timelines for sustaining Australian F-35s in the United States, it will also serve as a second source of service for US aircraft in the region," analyst Ashley Townshend told Breaking Defense.
"Importantly, one of the first decisions of the Albanese Labor government after the Defense Strategic Review was to allocate $4.1 billion for long-range strike and missile manufacturing over the next four years," Pat Conroy, defense industry minister, said.
“We have to analyse the world as it is rather than as we would want it to be. We have to bring our defense capabilities up to speed and AUKUS is central to that,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
"When you deal with a partner nation (Japan) you have to learn how they're set up. And, also, in this case there's obviously a language barrier," Lt. Col. Jon "Ghost" White, who commands the 366th Air Base Squadron, told Breaking Defense.
The 10-day exercise brought Vice Adm. Dinesh Tripathi of the Indian Navy from India's western coast to Papua New Guinea, via the Solomon Islands and on to Sydney, a rare outing for the Indian admiral who had only visited the Pacific once in 2018.
The new Combined Joint Network Operations Security Center (CJ-NOSC) "gives us the ability [to] collaborate along with our partners, which hasn't existed before," US Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of Army I Corps, told Breaking Defense.