An upgrade for the Air Warfare Destroyer—already? (James Mugg, The Strategist)

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/upgrade-air-warfare-destroyer-already/

AWD combat system: An upgrade for the Aegis (James Mugg, ASPI)

https://www.aspi.org.au/publications/awd-combat-system-an-upgrade-for-the-aegis

These are the droids you’re looking for (James Mugg, The Strategist)

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/droids-youre-looking/

US Navy railgun: do sailors dream of electric cannons? (James Mugg, The Strategist)

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/us-navy-railgun-sailors-dream-electric-cannons/

From Global Hawk to Triton: the RAAF’s future unmanned surveillance platform (James Mugg, The Strategist)

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/global-hawk-triton-raafs-future-unmanned-surveillance-platform/

Reverse engineering Australia’s FMS requests (Andrew Davies, James Mugg, The Strategist)

On 31 May, yet another Australian FMS purchase approval was listed on the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) website. This new sale is for ‘up to eighty (80) Standard Missiles, SM-2 Block IIIB’, as well as associated engineering and support equipment, at an estimated value of US$301 million. It comes hot on the heels of two recent Australian FMS approvals, for ‘up to 2,950’ GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb I (SDB-I – US$386m) and ‘up to 450’ AIM-120D air-to-air missiles (US$1.22b).

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/reverse-engineering-australias-fms-requests/

Securing Australia’s oceans: the case for unmanned maritime vehicles (James Mugg, Zoe Hawkins, ASPI The Strategist)

The volume of traffic travelling through Australia’s maritime approaches—along with a diversifying threat environment—is putting ever-increasing strain on border security assets. In the coming years, Maritime Border Command will come under pressure to capture, filter, monitor and respond to increasing volumes of information in order to more effectively address maritime security threats. And in a budget-constrained environment, that’ll require the adoption of more inventive and efficient strategies.

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/securing-australias-oceans-case-unmanned-maritime-vehicles/

Australian border security and unmanned maritime vehicles (James Mugg, Zoe Hawkins, John Coyne, ASPI)

Protecting the sovereignty of our maritime borders has never been more difficult than it is today. Australia must identify strategies for pre-positioning our finite maritime response capabilities in order to be able to respond promptly, effectively and efficiently to risks across our EEZ.

This special report examines the potential for UMVs to expand Australia’s maritime domain awareness and make the ADF’s and Australia Border Force’s risk management strategies more efficient. It provides recommendations for improving the efficiency of Australia’s maritime border security efforts.

https://www.aspi.org.au/publications/australian-border-security-and-unmanned-maritime-vehicles

Agenda for Change: ADF operational outlook (James Mugg, Christopher Cowan, ASPI The Strategist)

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/agenda-change-adf-operational-outlook/

Continuous naval shipbuilding in the UK (Andrew Davies, James Mugg, ASPI The Strategist)

The first batch of three River-class OPVs (HMS Tyne, Severn and Mersey) were ordered for the Royal Navy in April of 2001, built in Southampton, and commissioned in the second half of 2003. A fourth, slightly larger vessel (HMS Clyde) was built in Portsmouth and commissioned in 2007 for patrol duties around the Falkland Islands. In October of 2014, barely eleven years after the HMS Tyne was delivered, steel was cut in Glasgow for the first of three new River-class vessels. Surprisingly, they’re expected to replace the first three by 2017–18

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/continuous-naval-shipbuilding-in-the-uk/

DWP 2016: unmanned systems and the future ADF (James Mugg, ASPI The Strategist)

The 2016 Defence White Paper mentions ‘unmanned’ systems 15 times. The accompanying Integrated Investment Plan (IIP) [pdf] has 39 references. The government has clear ambitions to purchase UAVs for maritime surveillance and airborne strike, with unmanned systems for other roles evidently under consideration.

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/dwp-2016-unmanned-systems-and-the-future-adf/

F-35: keep calm but have a plan (Andrew Davies, James Mugg, ASPI The Strategist)

The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee is holding an inquiry into the planned acquisition of the F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter). ASPI has had a keen interest in this project for over a decade, so we made a submission (available here).

http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/f-35-keep-calm-but-have-a-plan/

Sea, air and land updates (Mercedes Page, James Mugg, ASPI The Strategist)

Sea State

The US Department of Defense has confirmed that the USS Curtis Wilbur conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea on 30 January, sailing within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels. According to the official statement from the US Navy, the operation was an exercise in innocent passage aimed at challenging the ‘excessive maritime claims of parties that claim the Paracel Islands’. You can read initial analysis of the latest US operation from Ankit Panda over at The Diplomat and Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. over at Breaking Defense.

The Russian Navy is planning to order six new Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines for its Pacific Fleet. The Kilo-class submarines are considered one of the quietest submarines in the world, and are sometimes called ‘black holes’ for their ability to seemingly disappear. Russia’s new Lada-class diesel-electric submarines are expected to be even stealthier, but extensive delays mean that the second and third Lada–class subs won’t be delivered until 2019.

We Are The Mighty have shared a list of the top five US battleships of all time. Included is theUSS Missouri, which was the last US battleship to be decommissioned (in 1992). For the history buffs out there, it was also host to the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945.

Flight Path

It wouldn’t be Flight Path without us checking out the ongoing drama surrounding the US F-35 program. In that vein, David Axe at The Daily Beast takes a look at how the quest to create the world’s most expensive jet has somehow backslid even further, with new delays in the stealth fighter jet’s 8 million lines of computer code. Problems with the coding mean that the plane won’t function, and it’s expected that problems and bugs in the 3F software will push back the original software testing schedule by another year—from July 2017 to at least August 2018. This means that more than 500 of the jets may be built before the program’s combat assessment is complete.

Japan has unveiled a test model of its first indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter, designed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. You can get the lowdown on the fighter—the ATD X-2 or ‘ShinShin’—from Defense World here. James Simpson over at War is Boring takes an in-depth look at the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s announcement that the X-2 prototype will make its first test flight this month and suggests that the X-2 is essentially a halfway point toward a sixth generation fighter—and as such, may never become a frontline war plane. Take a look at the article here.

Rapid Fire

In previous decades, a phrase like ‘AK-47s are being manufactured in Florida’ might have been spoken in a similar tone to ‘when hell freezes over’ or ‘when pigs fly’. After all, the iconic Russian assault rifle, first manufactured in 1949, has been the weapon of choice for almost every enemy force faced by the US since the Vietnam War. The rifles have actually been manufactured in Pennsylvania since June 2015 as a way of circumventing US economic sanctions against Russia. But Kalashnikov USA has recently announced that it will be relocating to sunny Florida in the coming months.

In a piece for The New York Times, former US Army Captain and author Matt Gallagher reflects on his interactions with US special operators. Gallagher notes the trend toward special operators in the US military—while overall the number of enlisted personnel has decreased in recent years, Special Ops personnel have risen from 45,600 in 2001 to 70,000 today. He argues that the secretive nature of Special Operations creates problems for public awareness of ‘armed violence carried out in our name’.

General Joseph Votel, the chief of SOCOM (Special Operations Command) stated in a memo to US Defense Secretary Ash Carter that Special Ops are getting too much public exposure. General Votel has been nominated to take over CENTCOM (Central Command), and hence Middle East operations, in the near future.

AUTHOR

Mercedes Page and James Mugg are research interns at ASPI.