Defence procurement – Here and there

Extent of former US officials’ role in AUKUS submarines decision called into question

24 October 2022 Mike Scrafton AUKUS

Abandoning plans to buy French designed conventionally powered submarines in favour of US or UK supplied nuclear powered submarines has come under sustained criticism on the grounds of strategy, cost, and practicality. Now the involvement of former US officials with potential conflicts of interest gives rise to the possibility that the AUKUS submarines decision itself was tainted.

More than an acronym: AUKUS must be an election issue in 2022

21 December 2021 Mike Scrafton Australian focus

When the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines are delivered, they will be expensive white elephants. And this strategically unsupportable and inordinately expensive project will distort defence policy for a generation.

‘Bloat and warfare’: the Hunter class frigate and the trend toward ever-more complicated and expensive weapons

25 February 2021 Online editor Analysis and comment, Strategy, defence and security

Why do weapons platforms keep getting bigger, more complicated, and more costly? In ‘Bloat and Warfare’ Jacob Parakilas makes some interesting observations about Canada’s new frigates, which are, like Australia’s proposed Hunter class frigates, based on the BAE Systems Type 26 frigate design.