Latest news with #defence
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Australia's defence spending creating a ‘paper ADF', think tank warns
Australia must boost its immediate readiness to go to war or risk having a 'paper ADF', a leading defence think tank warns. In a report published on Thursday, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said that while Labor was spending on longer-term projects it was not pumping nearly enough cash into keeping Australia combat-ready in the near term. The report, authored by former Home Affairs deputy secretary Marc Ablong, called for 'defence funding to be increased to reflect the reality of the threats facing Australia'. It said that while the Albanese government 'claims to have made a 'generational investment in Australia's defence', that investment has been put off for another generation', pointing out that the bulk of the billions pledged by Labor would not kick in until after 2029. With the Albanese government itself predicting a major global conflict by 2034 and analysts warning of a US-China conflict before 2030, Mr Ablong argued that the money was not flowing fast enough. 'While consistency can often be a virtue, it reveals a businessâ€'asâ€'usual approach to a world now in crisis and conflict,' the report said. 'The rhetoric recognising the threats isn't translating into action to deal with the threats, meaning the government continues to deprioritise the readiness and sustainability of the current forceâ€'inâ€'being with the largest spending increases on capability sustainment tied to the Fâ€'35 Lightning force ($190m) and Collinsâ€'class submarines ($235m).' It warned that the 'Indoâ€'Pacific region is undeniably an epicentre of a burgeoning rearmament'. 'Australia is a part of that rearmament, although others are moving much faster than us,' the report said. 'The current military correlation of forces between Australia and our region is growing. 'Consequentially, a central concern we express in this report is the gap between strategic intent and tangible capability delivery.' Mr Ablong wrote that the 'timelines for major acquisitions', such as AUKUS, 'extend well into the next decade and beyond' and did little to deal with immediate threats. 'While those future capabilities are strategically important, they offer little immediate enhancement, thus creating a 'paper ADF' that lacks readiness for nearâ€'term conflict scenarios,' the report said. 'That prioritisation of future over current readiness contributes to a hollowing out of the force, in which personnel shortages and limited munitions stockpiles exacerbate sustainability concerns.' Anthony Albanese has hit back at the report, saying ASPI needed to 'have a look at themselves as well and the way that they conduct themselves in debates'. 'We've got considerable additional investment going into defence – $10bn,' the Prime Minister told the ABC. 'We're lifting up our defence expenditure up to 2.4 per cent of GDP, we're investing in assets and our capability. 'We're also investing in our relationships in the region, that's very important as well.' Mr Albanese said the think tank was 'run by people who've been in a position to make a difference in the past as part of former governments', adding that it was 'predictable, frankly'.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- Business
- ABC News
Anthony Albanese tells think tank to 'have a look at themselves' after defence report
The prime minister has lashed out at one of the country's leading security think tanks and demanded it "have a look at themselves" after it warned Australia could be left with a "brittle and hollowed defence force" if military funding was not increased. In its latest Cost of Defence report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that despite the government's claims it made a "generational investment" in defence during the March budget, "that investment has been put off for another generation". "The failure of this year's budget to meet that responsibility will make all Australians less secure," ASPI report author and former Home Affairs deputy secretary Mark Ablong concludes. "Without urgent, coordinated and well resourced responses to those challenges, Australia risks a brittle and hollowed defence force, diminished industrial sovereignty, and compromised national security in a volatile Indo Pacific region." According to the ASPI document "more and more companies" are also abandoning the Australian defence market due to the "risk averse, overly bureaucratic and delayed or abandoned project cycles". Following the release of the ASPI report on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hit out at the independent government-funded organisation, which Beijing has also attacked in recent years for its commentary on the Chinese Communist Party. "Well, that's what they do, isn't it, ASPI? I mean, seriously, they need to … have a look at themselves and the way they conduct themselves in debates," Mr Albanese told ABC Radio Brisbane. "We've had a defence strategic review. We've got considerable additional investment going into defence — $10 billion," Mr Albanese said while insisting his government was acting. "ASPI regularly produce these sort of reports, you know, run by people who have been in a position to make a difference in the past as part of former governments. Mr Albanese also suggested that Labor had plans to lift defence expenditure up to 2.4 per cent of GDP, but under the government's projections, defence spending is expected to reach 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033-34, up from its current level of 2.02 per cent. Last year a government-commissioned review of public support for national security research, which was led by former bureaucrat Peter Varghese, recommended an overhaul of funding for ASPI and other similar institutions. Inside Labor circles, there has been growing disquiet at the direction of ASPI under the leadership of Justin Bassi, a former Liberal Party staffer who was appointed to the role by then-defence minister Peter Dutton in 2022. However, following the release of the Varghese review last year, former Labor MP and now senior fellow at ASPI, David Feeney, criticised the government's response to the document. "The recommendation to close the ASPI office in Washington DC is a misstep, particularly at a time when AUKUS is so important," the former parliamentary secretary for defence told the ABC in December. "While the DFAT [Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] viewpoint that it should enjoy a monopoly on the Australia-US relationship is explicable, the fact remains that civil society is important to the alliance relationship too."
CBC
4 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
Is the Carney government serious about building up Canada's defence industry?
The 'jury's out,' says president of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries Christyn Cianfarani. Scaling up capacity in the procurement system is a 'heavy lift,' but if the country is signalling for change, 'industry will align to make that happen,' says Cianfarani.
BBC News
4 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
More than £1bn earmarked for battlefield tech
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) will spend more than £1bn to develop technology to speed up decisions on the battlefield. The funding will be one of the results of the government's long-awaited strategic defence review which is due to be published in full on government has committed to raising defence spending to 2.5% GDP from April 2027 with an ambition to increase that to 3% in the next February, the prime minister said cuts to the foreign aid budget would be used to fund the military boost. Announcing the results of the review, the MoD said a new Digital Targeting Web would better connect soldiers on the ground with key information provided by satellites, aircraft and drones helping them target enemy threats Secretary John Healey said the technology announced in the review - which will harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) and software - also highlights lessons being learnt from the war in is already using AI and software to speed up the process of identifying, and then hitting, Russian military review had been commissioned by the newly formed Labour government shortly after last year's election with Healey describing it as the "first of its kind". The government said the findings would be published in the first half of 2025, but did not give an exact made the announcement on a visit to the MoD's cyber headquarters in Corsham, Wiltshire. The headquarters is where the UK military co-ordinates their cyber activities to both prevent and to carry out officials said over the last two years the UK's military had faced more than 90,000 cyber-attacks by potential adversaries. Attacks have been on the rise, as has their level of sophistication, they added. Staff at Corsham said they had recently helped identify and block malware sent to UK military personnel who recently returned from working abroad. They said the source of the malware was from a "known Russian actor".Both Russia and China have been linked to the increase in cyber-attacks. Defence officials have confirmed that the UK military has also been conducting its own offensive said it showed the nature of warfare was changing. "The keyboard is now a weapon of war and we are responding to that," he said the UK needed to be the fastest-innovating military within the Nato part of the strategic defence review, the UK's military cyber operations will be overseen by a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command. The MoD said the Command would also take the lead in electronic warfare, from co-ordinating efforts to intercept any adversaries communications, to jamming said the extra investment being made was possible because of the government's "historic commitment" to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. However, the Nato Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, is calling on allies to increase defence spending by more than 3.5% of GDP.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
CTV National News: Canada exploring defence partnerships in Europe
CTV National News: Canada exploring defence partnerships in Europe Canada is exploring defence partnerships with Europe as U.S. President Trump renews his offer to make it the 51st state. Judy Trinh has more.
