The 2020 Defence Strategic Update released by the Morrison government on 1 July concluded that Australia’s strategic environment is deteriorating – and deteriorating faster than was anticipated in the 2016 Defence White Paper. This grim finding, with warnings “coercion, competition and grey-zone activities directly or indirectly targeting Australian interests are occurring now”, has been widely accepted, punctuated as it is by a low point in Australia’s bilateral relationship with China.
Yet curiously, despite recognising the intensifying threats and reduced strategic warning time, the 2020 Update did nothing to accelerate the Navy’s modernisation, which is the centrepiece of the accompanying 2020 Force Structure Plan. The 2020 Update trumpets the claim that the 2016 white paper “laid the foundation for the largest recapitalisation of the Royal Navy in modern history, underpinned by a continuous National Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise”. The combatant components of the future fleet will be 12 Attack-class submarines, nine Hunter-class frigates, and three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers. Of these 24 platforms, only three currently exist....MORE
