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Category Archives: Defence

The Long Barrier

Someone listened to his cricket coach as a kid: 
A British soldier has described how he picked up a Taliban hand grenade which landed at his feet and threw it back towards the enemy.
Rifleman James McKie was on a tiny rooftop in Sangin. He and two of his platoon could hear the bullets fired by the [...]

UK to ignore illegal aliens

The Ministry of Defence has closed its UFO unit after more than 50 years of investigating reported UK sightings…
In a statement, the MoD said it had “no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial life”.
It went on: “In over 50 years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the [...]

Have we met?

British forces have begun their official withdrawal from Iraq after the UK’s commander in the south of the country handed over to a US general.
Major General Andy Salmon has transferred authority for what will become Multi-National Division South to US Major General Michael Oates. The generals’ pennants were raised and lowered in a handover ceremony.
Most [...]

‘I won’t testify. I’m afraid’

Two things jumped out at me after sitting today’s evidence exam (apart from the fact that the seats in the Examination Schools are bloody uncomfortable). The first was the SCOTUS ruling in Heller, where the Court held 5-4 that owning a gun for self-defence purposes was a Second Amendment right, while the second was the [...]

Curioser and Curioser, said Alice

Catallaxy commenter Dr Carlo Kopp had an interesting piece in yesterday’s Age. It appears Brendan Nelson is telling porky pies about the F22A Raptor, and Australia’s ability to acquire the aircraft. Money quote:
At this point the minister’s claims become bizarre. A news release issued the same day contained the statement that ‘the Government has not [...]

Guest post by Dr Dennis Jensen, MP: It won’t be right on the night

Dr Dennis Jensen is member for the West Australian seat of Tangney. A former air traffic controller, CSIRO and later Defence research scientist, and defence analyst, he’s widely recognised as one of the rising stars on John Howard’s backbench. He’s played an important part in Australia’s air capability debate, which we’ve discussed previously on Catallaxy [...]

Catallaxy Exclusive – Raptor v Lightning

This post is just to let people know that tonight at 6pm Queensland time (Tue 23 January), Catallaxy will publish an exclusive article on defence policy from Dr Dennis Jensen, MP (left). Dr Jensen is one of the leading participants in what has become a major national debate, and as a former defence analyst himself, [...]

Turf Wars

Let’s face it, I’m a gadget girl (have got a house full of the things), and this is one of the best online gadgets I’ve found. David Jackmanson is a clever little tech geek, and I’ve shamelessly pinched this off his site. It’s a 90 second animated history of just who’s had control of the [...]

Defence are buying what?

Defence analyst (and occasional Catallaxy commenter) Dr Carlo Kopp had an excellent piece in yesterday’s Age about the recent defence decision to buy Super Hornets as interim replacements for the F-111. Money quote:
The Super Hornet is the US Navy’s follow-on fighter to the “Classic Hornet”, currently flown by four RAAF squadrons. While slightly larger [...]

F-22A Raptor: the f*** off factor

Every now and again an issue bubbles along just under the radar of public debate. Sometimes it pops its head up for air, generating the occasional MSM opinion piece, but most of the time argument is confined to aficionados battling it out in the trade press.
Such an issue is the debate over the future shape, [...]