Beijing's strategic encirclement of Australia

No country has come close to China's long-term growth rate, which has averaged a remarkable 9.5% over the last 40 years. This sustained high level of economic activity has enabled a parallel expansion in defence spending. While NATO countries are struggling to hit 2% growth targets, China's defence budget increased by 7% in 2021

Railplug Ignition System for Enhanced Engine Performance and Reduced Maintenance

During the first 18 months of this project, four experimental subtasks were to have begun but only one of these was to have been completed. Additionally, five modeling subtasks were scheduled to begin, four of which were to have been completed. We are on schedule for all but one of these subtasks. All four experimental tasks are progressing on schedule. Initial durability tests were completed. The conclusions drawn from this first round of durability tests are being used to design the next set of tests. Initial baseline engine data were acquired and showed that the engine selected for this task behaves as hoped. However, the dyno controller is inadequate. The engine will be moved to another dyno during the near future. The modeling tasks are also progressing well. A model for the dynamic response of the ignition circuit was developed and validated. Two technical papers resulting from this model were submitted for publication. Development of a model for the railplug ignition process was begun but was not scheduled for completion. Progress on this task consisted of two subtasks. First, a railplug circuit model was also developed and validated. Second, a model was developed for the physics that govern railplug performance. This initial model incorporated only the effects of the Lorentz force on arc movement. From this model, it is concluded that thermal expansion is important to the performance of railplugs. Thermal expansion, and other physical effects, will be added to the model in the near future. We delayed the development of a 3D model for the ignition process, until near the end of the project because of the computational time requirements. We can learn most of the important lessons from the 2D model. Delay of this subtask will not affect the timely completion of the project

The decline of South Africa’s defence industry

The growth of South Africa’s apartheid era defence industry was propelled by international isolation following the 1984 UN arms embargo and revealed military technology deficiencies during the border war. Weapons innovation became an imperative, fostering development of frontier technologies and upgrades of legacy platforms that drove expansion in arms exports. However, this golden era was not to last. The 1994 election of the country’s first democratic government switched resources from military to human security. The resultant defence-industrial stagnation continues to this day, exacerbated by corruption, unethical sales, and government mismanagement. The industry’s survival into the 2020s cannot be assured

Offset in a post-Brexit world

Prior to the launch of the European Procurement Directive, the UK’s erstwhile offset model was hailed a success. However, the directive compelled the UK to abandon its approach as the intention of the European Commission was to suppress and eventually remove offset from Europe’s defence-industrial landscape. Ron Matthews and Jonata Anicetti explain that Brexit has uncoupled UK defence procurement from the directive, creating the opportunity to reintroduce an industrial participation (IP) policy. Indeed, the Ministry of Defence has already taken the first tentative steps, as revealed in its March 2021 Defence and Security Industrial Strategy. This raises the question as to whether a ‘version 2.0’ IP policy will build on the original model’s success, and similarly reflect cooperation rather than coercion

Made in China: an emerging brand in the global arms market

Possession of a brand is a sine qua non for economic success, not least because it connotes trust in delivering the value promised. Although Western arms exporters offer branded systems whose sales are influenced by price, there is a plethora of other economic variables, such as offset requirements and life-cycle support. Entrants to the international arms market will struggle without such arms “packages.” China’s entry, however, goes beyond the traditional economic paradigm. A four-stage historical model offers the backdrop for identifying the drivers that have forged its market entry into 55 countries worldwide. The strategy initially focused on sales of rudimentary military equipment for political purposes, but recently it has begun to commercialize exports, repositioning them from a low- to a high-tech sales trajectory. A Sino “brand” is thus emerging, reflecting both competitiveness and diplomatic considerations, especially non-interference in client state domestic affairs

The role of offset in the enduring gestation of Indonesia’s strategic industries

The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of Indonesia’s informal offset policy over the period 1976-2014. The paper offers four original academic perspectives: firstly, it is framed by reference to what Indonesia’s former Minister of Technology, Dr Habibie, described as the Progressive Manufacturing Plan, a novel approach in which offset was intended to play a critical supportive role in the systematic development of strategic civil-military industries; secondly, the analysis is structured into three distinctive ‘development-survival-revival’ industrialisation stages that impacted on the performance of both offset and the broader defence economy; thirdly, the study is uniquely different in the sense that the offset case studies all occurred in an era absent of a formal offset policy regime; and lastly, the study provides a wealth of rich data in a subject field well-known for its sensitivity, if not secrecy, and thus is characterised by a paucity of empirical evaluation

A CT Database for Research, Development and Education: Concept and Potential

Both in radiology and in surgery, numerous applications are emerging that enable 3D visualization of data from various imaging modalities. In clinical practice, the patient's images are analyzed on work stations in the Radiology Department. For specific preclinical and educational applications, however, data from single patients are insufficient. Instead, similar scans from a number of individuals within a collective must be compiled. The definition of standardized acquisition procedures and archiving formats are prerequisite for subsequent analysis of multiple data sets. Focusing on bone morphology, we describe our concept of a computer database of 3D human bone models obtained from computed tomography (CT) scans. We further discuss and illustrate deployment areas ranging from prosthesis design, over virtual operation simulation up to 3D anatomy atlases. The database of 3D bone models described in this work, created and maintained by the AO Development Institute, may be accessible to research institutes on reques

Organisational complexity of the Eurofighter Typhoon collaborative supply chain

The European Union (EU) promotes arms collaboration as a stepping-stone towards the evolution of an integrated European defence technology and industrial base. It will necessarily comprise prime contractors and their attendant supply chains, with the latter particularly important because they represent a refined regional division of labour, promoting efficiencies through skill-based specialisation. Paradoxically, however, Europe’s largest military aerospace collaborative venture, the Eurofighter Typhoon, possesses a complex supply chain subject to political and institutional strictures, as well as potential inefficiencies. Partner nations prioritise national sovereignty objectives through duplicated assembly lines and work allocation arrangements based on juste retour (fair share) rather than market-driven competitiveness criteria. The purpose of this paper, then, is to explore Typhoon’s supply chain complexity, especially the impact of juste retour policy. The findings from this analysis will highlight important policy issues influencing the future supply chain model of Europe’s successor 6th-Generation fighter programme

Operational resilience in the business-battle space

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interconnectivity between defence, security, and business, particularly when viewed through the prism of operational resilience. The standard stereotype depicts the military acting as a harbinger of destruction while business represents the motive force of wealth generation. This is too simplistic, however. Militaries fight wars, but they also make an important contribution to addressing the expanding array of non-traditional threats that form part of national security, including wildfires, floods, earthquakes and, of course, pandemics, such as COVID-19. The military’s physical resources, attitudinal robustness, and rigorous planning regimes represent three of the more important dimensions of military operational resilience. Mutual commercial-military benefits can be gained via a “two-way” street in the adoption of best-practice resilience solutions. There is a recognition that just as military resource managers can learn from business, so equally can business learn from the military. The U.K. case is offered to illustrate the principles, policies, and practices of military operational resilience