News
How Iran can stop shipping with mines – in the strait, the whole Gulf and even the Red Sea
20+ hour, 55+ min ago (664+ words) Just reports of mines are often sufficient to disrupt maritime traffic. Even if ship owners, crews and insurers weren't aware of the missile threat in the Strait of Hormuz, news reporting of sea mines in the narrow waters would likely…...
Fuel (and much else) comes by sea. That’s why nuclear submarines are important
1+ day, 23+ hour ago (466+ words) Australians feeling the sting of'high fuel prices'at the bowser or seeing supplies struggle to reach regional communities are being reminded just how dependent Australia is on the arrival of supplies by sea. That dependence sits at the centre of our…...
Wondering where China’s cyber effort will go next? Just read the five-year plan
3+ day, 6+ hour ago (265+ words) Most cyber analysis begins with incidents. It should begin with intent. Adversaries sometimes declare strategic priorities, yet cyber incidents that align with them are not assessed accordingly. We should in fact be guarding against intrusions before they happen by taking…...
Military drone racing is becoming a training ground
2+ week, 22+ hour ago (463+ words) Australia's military drone pilots are internationally competitive, and the army is beginning to benefit from skills that service personnel are developing privately. Nonetheless, the Australian Defence Force is still a long way from fielding drone capability at the scale that…...
For northern logistics, communication is key
2+ week, 2+ day ago (362+ words) Strategic language won't unlock private investment. A freight operator cannot justify expanding heavy vehicle fleets based on broad references to deterrence. A port operator cannot sequence new berths, storage areas and logistics yards on general statements about resilience. A fuel…...
When global maritime arteries seize, Australia chokes
2+ week, 4+ day ago (760+ words) Australians are learning an uncomfortable lesson about maritime power. The conflict in the Middle East and threats to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz have pushed oil prices sharply higher and exposed a deeper strategic vulnerability: Australia's prosperity depends…...
It’s not where buses are made. It’s how they’re controlled
3+ week, 2+ day ago (694+ words) A debate over Chinese-made electric buses has arrived in Australia with familiar speed. Talk of potential kill switches has prompted calls to rip and replace foreign vehicles and turn to domestic supply. The debate over Yutong buses, already in service…...
Hormuz closure brings Australia’s layered fuel vulnerability to the fore
3+ week, 2+ day ago (625+ words) Recent events in the Middle East have turned the fuel vulnerability Australia confronted during the Red Sea disruptions last year into an immediate strategic test. Following US and Israeli strikes on Iran, Tehran has claimed that the Strait of Hormuz…...
Sharing cyber threats, Australia and Taiwan need to protect digital economies
4+ week, 16+ min ago (462+ words) Australia and Taiwan sit at different ends of the Indo-Pacific, but they confront the same underlying problem: deep digitisation has converted efficiency into exposure. Supply-chain cyberattacks in the Indo-Pacific are no longer isolated incidents. They are increasingly ecosystems of compromise,…...
Design for disruption: how to diversify Australian food and energy security
4+ week, 2+ hour ago (185+ words) Australia's food and energy security policy must treat diversification as a strategic asset, not an inefficiency. Systems optimised purely for cost and speed perform well in calm conditions. They fail when shipping disruptions, export controls and input shortages overlap'and we…...