At a time when Australia’s geostrategic environment is worsening, the outlines of the country’s forthcoming defence review indicate that few changes will be made.
In the late May Australian federal election, the Labor Party ousted the conservative Coalition (formed of the Liberal and National Parties), which had been in power for the past nine years. As promised in its election campaign, the new government quickly commenced a Force Posture Review. This has now morphed into a seemingly more comprehensive Defence Strategic Review to report by March 2023.
The review builds from a key determination of the last government’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update that the long-held assumption of a 10-year warning of ‘the prospect of high-intensity military conflict’ was unsustainable. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) might now be called on to fight at shorter notice – although how short was not defined. Increased military readiness was needed, and this meant adjusting ADF force posture and preparedness in terms of ‘the supply of specialised munitions and logistic requirements, such as fuel, critical to military capability’.
Please click here to read the full “An Australian defence strategic review of limited ambition” article published at RUSI. written by Griffith Asia Institute Visiting Fellow, Dr Peter Layton.
