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.
If this program broadens to production, it will be a singular success story for an Australian research and development effort, which often excel until they face the perils of the well-known valley of death.
"So the measure that we undertook of the flight limit bulletin, I think, probably is best summed up as that will allow us to not only to stop this increase in the rate of occurrence, but reduce it by 99 percent," a senior official told Breaking Defense.
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
"This was a textbook response to a loss of power. The engine stopped, the crew were able to shut the engine down and to ditch the aircraft into Jervis Bay in a way where it was able to keep the aircraft upright.," Defense Minister Richard Marles said in an appearance at Parliament.
Former Prime Minister Keating called the AUKUS plan a "deeply pathetic" move by the Labor Party he once led. He personally criticized Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defense Minister Richard Marles for their roles, saying they were "seriously unwise ministers."
One analyst called the new agreement the biggest engineering project in 75 years for Australia, but there are big hurdles that need to be cleared.
"Well, there's one country in the region that's undergone the biggest peacetime militarization since the Second World War and that's the People's Republic of China," said Australian Shadow Defense Minister Andrew Hastie. "So they can make comments like they have, but it's kind of ironic given what they're doing with their military."
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
Australia faces "huge political risk in this, and huge costs. It's going to be an extremely bumpy ride," says Malcolm Davis of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
"He is commenting on an outcome he doesn't yet know," the British ambassador to Australia said of Peter Dutton's comments praising American, rather than UK, subs.
March 13 is the target date to gather President Joe Biden and Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rushi Sunak in person at one of America's primary naval bases.
Australian Defense Minister Marles said "we really do need to be trying to build a seamless industrial base between the United States" and Australia.
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
"I think it's a really important part of where we go to is just looking at how we can have that sort of electronic warfare type of capability to allow us to deter attacks or certainly interfere," the head of Australia's Defense Space Command said.
Pat Conroy, Australian minister for defense industry, said former minister Peter Dutton is "either being mischievous or he's not privy to the latest information."
The incredibly rapid rate at which Russia and Ukraine have gone through artillery shells and missiles, as well as the risks of Australia facing a country like China demonstrate how this land could be left empty of weapons in a very short time.
Lockheed Australia's CEO, Warren McDonald sees Air 6500 as part of what he called a "massive recapitalization" of Australia's military.