From the Magazine: DEFENCE BUDGET 2022-2023 ANALYSIS

Australians take great pride in the personnel and capabilities of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Over the years, the ADF’s operations both overseas and in support of local and South Pacific Island communities when they are impacted by major natural disasters, have received extensive favourable publicity. The eye watering commitments of billions of dollars to date and into the future seem rarely to cause much public or media comment, but this situation is changing rapidly. Kym Bergmann, in APDR’s May 2022 Editorial Letter, gives an excellent summary of the changes he sees occurring. (This is available in a back issue from APDR’s website.) The invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, where a brave defence has been offered by Ukrainian Army personnel and civilians against Russian tanks, other vehicles and aircraft has shown effective alternatives to the current and planned future ADF land platforms. Specifically, the Ukrainians have made use of large numbers of armed drones like the Turkish Bayraktar TB2, which is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations before dropping its munition load, and the US supplied Switchblade ‘kamikaze’ drone which lands directly on a target, then explodes its munitions. However, we need to be careful in wanting the ADF just to look like the Ukrainian defence forces! For a start, the Ukrainians are really only operating in the land domain. Australia also has to have trained and equipped forces operating in the maritime, air, cyber and space domains. Also, it is heavily dependent on the compatibility of its personnel training, equipment and systems, with its close defence partners. This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the full story click here. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Director of Sales Graham Joss at [email protected]