Apparently
China has released a military white paper
which defines their military goals over the next fifty years. They did so at the Bush Administration's insistence so China's geo-political strategies and policies could be more accurately judged.
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I made the comment on catallaxy files
that bad governance and military intrusion
was endemic enough in the South Pacific that there may be value in Australia or New Zealand extending its institutions for the purpose of stabilising some of those nations. However I don't think it would be of value unless the island nations military came under the central command of the ADF. This would require a short-term transition of the ADF to a multi-ethnic regional force.
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TheAustralian has a couple of
interviews with SASR veteran Peter Tinley
who says;
The Government had broken a "moral contract" with the defence force in sending it to an "immoral" war. "The Government has failed to be honest with the Australian people and you can't separate the defence force from the people. The reality is that it is made up of men and women from all over this country.(more)
Australia deployed light infantry as part of a United Nations force to East Timor which it led. Indonesia lost its political fight in East Timor and withdrew KOPASSUS and TNI support for the pro-Indonesian militia. Australia's force structure was unobtrusive and non-abrasive. Tellingly though, Australia secured the political environment before the military deployment. This can inform Australian policy on Iraq and Afghanistan.
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I have argued previously in;
Do We Need a 2005 Defence White Paper
, that we need an updated Defence White Paper, and that the supporting documents released since do not fully answer some changes in the strategic environment regionally and domestically. As a result I was interested to see the Howard Government's reply to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade recommendations.
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The parliamentary library has released a research note which
updates information on the JSF project [PDF]
and Australia's position and options for it. The two main issues identified are increasing cost of the platform and Australian access to source code.
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The
Kokoda Foundation
asks of the upcoming replacement of the F111 and F18 platforms;
Australia's future Joint Strike Fighter fleet: How much is too little?
The Australian government will probably be asking that same question from another angle: How much is enough!
The Kokoda Foundation tested force structures for three, four and five squadrons of JSFs in two scenarios. One regional and one expeditionary. The Foundation discovered that less than sixty-four frontline aircraft forced compromises in Australian government policy and ADF capability. A further discovery was that with eighty frontline aircraft, our force multipliers such as AEW&Cs and tankers inflicted limitations on the JSFs ability to operate.
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Australia has not produced a Defence White Paper since 2000. I recently argued that
we needed a new Defence White Paper
as the 2003 Update and Defence Capability Plan were not sufficient enough to determine future defence doctrine. The United States military recently released the
Quadrennial Defense Review Report [QDR]
which acts as a similar statement on doctrine, capability and force planning as the Defence White Paper does in Australia. Since Australia adheres to the
"Great and Powerful Friends"
doctrine of foreign policy where Australian forces accept American leadership and the ADF is designed to slot in transparently into US forces, this will have an effect on Australian doctrine as well.
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Nice sensationalist headline;
"FA-18s to protect MCG"
. How about instead we take
a cue from Bruce Schneier
.
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The Australian has a pre-release discussion of it.
No mention of the report, or its impending release from the
defence website media room
.
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