Category: Defence

The Australian He wears a pair of Clark Kent glasses, and with his tall, solid build, this senior air force officer could easily play the part of Superman. But the man charged with delivering Australia’s $17 billion defence baby, a fleet of 72 F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, doesn’t just look the part. Air Vice-Marshal Leigh…

The Australian During this centenary of Anzac, Australians are being inundated with popular books on World War I and every other conflict in which our Diggers fought. In this environment, academic historian Jeffrey Grey certainly swam against the tide of populism and achieved a towering reputation. Grey, who died in late July, aged 57, taught…

The Australian When the Australian Defence Force sent troops to Bougainville and East Timor 15 years ago, medical officers saw an opportunity to test new anti-malarial drugs.  Across three years, about 2500 soldiers were used in trials of drugs that were unapproved or had serious side effects on mental health. Some soldiers say they were…

The Australian Garth Callender wrote reports “to save lives” during an eight-month tour in Afghanistan in 2009, his third deployment to a war zone in five years. His dispatches contained forensic analysis of the improvised explosive devices used by insurgents to kill and maim coalition troops and Afghans, which at this time were taking out…

The Australian THE Australian Federal Police’s capacity to fight organised crime and terrorism networks in ethnic communities is being called into question given the mainly Anglo-Celtic background of its staff. In order to address its ethnic background deficiencies, the AFP was forced to spend $4 million in 2012-13 on interpreter and translation services, and $2.7m…