Australian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Air Force has marked the end of an era with a decision to withdraw the Heron remotely piloted aircraft from service.

The Heron flew its last mission from RAAF Base Tindal during Exercise Diamond Storm on June 23.

During Diamond Storm, Heron completed 17 sorties in support of the Air Warfare Instructor Course in an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance electronic warfare (ISREW) role.

No. 5 Flight is set to be disbanded at the end of the year. The aircraft has played a pivotal role in Air Force’s ability to deliver air-land integration effects in support of our national security interests including in Afghanistan, where it completed more than 27,000 mission hours during Operation Slipper.

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has made it plain that Australia will be involved in any conflict in the event North Korea attacks the United States.

The prime minister told 3AW on Friday morning “if there is an attack on the US, the Anzus treaty would be invoked” and Australia would come to the aid of the United States.

He said the form of Australia’s engagement would be determined in consultation with allies. “In terms of defence, we are joined at the hip,” Turnbull said.

Shares plunged in the

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region on Friday morning amid investor alarm at the increasingly bellicose war of words between North Korea and the US. In Australia, the benchmark ASX/S&P 200 index was down 1.3% at 5685 points, while in Seoul the Kospi index was off more than 2%.

The prime minister’s remarks followed a conversation on Thursday night with the US vice-president, Mike Pence.

The Anzus treaty is a defence agreement signed in 1951 to protect the security of the Pacific. The treaty says the signatories will “consult together” and “act to meet the common danger”.

There is debate among defence experts about whether the treaty’s wording necessitates military action by the parties.

Turnbull’s bullish comments on Friday morning contrast with a more hedged tone from Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop earlier in the week.

Bishop told the ABC on Thursday there was no automatic trigger for Australia to be involved.

She said Australia was not a party to the ceasefire that ended the Korean War in 1953, and, “as far as the Anzus alliance is concerned, that is an obligation to consult”.

But Turnbull said on Friday that in the event

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attacked Guam, Australia and the US would “stand together” and that commitment by Australia was “absolutely rock solid”.

He said just as John Howard had invoked the Anzus treaty in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, his government would do the same if North Korea launched a military assault on American territory.

The US president,

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, issued several provocative warnings this week to North Korea.

He vowed to respond to North Korea with “

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” if it threatened to attack America. Overnight, Trump has said his threat to unleash “fire and fury” on the country

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The North Korean regime telegraphed a detailed plan this week to launch missiles aimed at the waters off the coast of the US Pacific territory of Guam.

Asked if the US was considering a preemptive strike, Trump replied: “We don’t talk about that. I never do.”

Earlier in the week,

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in the event the bellicose standoff between the US and and North Korea escalated into outright conflict.

On Wednesday, he said the only way to deal with North Korea was with “maximum economic pressure” and he welcomed “new and harsh” sanctions

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on the regime.

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Jura said:

...

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(> 5k full displacement with just 8 VLS cells and 8 AShMs ... perhaps the most under-armed modern warships, oh wait USN LCSs are much more revolutionary)
...

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THE Australian Defence Force was today accused of putting up a smokescreen to hide its politically correct policy of only hiring women for roles including those on the frontline.

The Daily Telegraph revealed the weekly targets sent out to ADF recruiters showed no targets for men in 35 of 50 Army positions but the instruction to “recruit immediately” if a woman came forward for combat roles such as armoured cavalry.

In response the ADF put out a statement saying: “All roles in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) are open for men and women to apply.”

But an ADF recruiter told The Telegraph: “Yes they can apply – but only women will get the job.”

The instructions to ADF recruiters are clear with roles for men marked in red, clearly showing there are no vacancies for the next 12 months.

But the ones for women are marked in green, showing targets for hiring in the next six months. Frontline roles including rifleman and artilleryman are also highlighted with a yellow star which means “recruit immediately”.

The internal ADF document, obtained by The Telegraph, also shows similar quotas for the Navy and Air Force. Of 18 jobs open for the navy in the next six months just one is open to male recruits. None of the seven targeted Air Force roles is open to men.

The recruiter said he had also been ordered to tell any male already recruited for a combat role but not yet in training to change their choice of job to make way for women recruits.

“I have not done that,” he said. “I want the best person for the job irrespective of their gender.”

Former Army officer and Australian Conservatives member Bernie Gaynor said: “Defence’s statement attempting to refute news that males are being discriminated against for frontline combat roles is nothing more than a smokescreen.

“It is true that males can apply for any job. It is also true that females who are accepted must pass the required standards. But this does not address the fundamental aspect of the situation.

“Recruiting officers have been directed not to process applications from males for combat roles over the next 12 months. Males will simply not get the jobs while females will be fast-tracked through the system,” he said.

Senator Cory Bernardi warned “politically correct and gender ideology” was likely to “compromise the effectiveness of our front line combat capability.

The recruitment policy comes from the top. At an International Women’s Day speech in Canberra this year Chief of Army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell said: “We aspire to have 25 per cent representation of women in Army by 2025.”

That is double the current number of women who make up 12.7 per cent of the army — although disproportionately 18 per cent of commanding officers are now women.

In a speech to army recruiters last year Lt Gen Campbell admitted his policies had met with dissension in the ranks.

He said a recruiting officer had told the Chief of the Defence Force’s gender adviser he “needed to protect the Army from Canberra”.

Another recruiter told his team to ignore the directions to recruit women. “I subsequently invited him to review his posting options,” he said.

And he warned recruiters: “I will have no humour if my directions are ignored a third time.”

A Defence spokesman said: “While Defence maintains targets to encourage greater participation of women, every candidate must meet the required standards. Successful candidates are selected based on merit and their capacity to do the work, not on their gender.”

He did not answer questions about recruiters being told specifically to target women but said men or women could apply for any role.

He said the Army has a target of 15 per cent women by 2023.

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Jura said:

Mar 25, 2017

Jura said:

Jan 7, 2017

and now
Spanish frigate Cristobal Colon arrives in Sydney

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while now
Spanish frigate wraps up four months of Aegis training with Australian Navy
source:

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Spanish Navy frigate ESPS Cristóbal Colón (F-105) returned home to Naval Base Ferrol, Spain, on August 10 after spending three month in Australia where the ship’s crew helped prepare Australian sailors to operate the Aegis combat system.

Just the like the future HMAS Hobart, the first of three new air warfare destroyers the Australian Navy is receiving, ESPS Cristóbal Colón features the Lockheed Martin-built combat system.

The Australian destroyers are based on the Navantia-designed F-100 frigate and share significant platform similarities with Cristobal Colon.

While in Australian waters, the F-105 took part in several national and international exercises, embarking up to 12 rotating crews of the future Hobart-class AWD destroyers.

During the transits to and from Australia, Cristóbal Colón provided support to different ongoing international operations like Sea Guardian and Sophia in the Mediterranean, the counter-piracy operation Atalanta in the Indian Ocean and exercise UNITAS in the Pacific Ocean with other Latin-American navies.

The deployment lasted 214 days, 162 of which were days at sea sailing a total of 40,000 miles.

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Jura said:

inside
Navantia pitches F-5000 design for Future Frigates bid
11 Aug 2017

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"With capabilities based on the Hobart Class, the F-5000 also incorporates lessons learnt from the operational requirements of the Navantia designed and built Norwegian F-310 ASW frigate."

at that point I recalled Wednesday at 8:21 PM
so "lessons learnt" would mean arming ships properly hahaha, as the next sentence is

"The F-5000 will also provide operational flexibility and force multiplication by incorporating 48 strike length missile cells, a Mk45 5” gun, an advanced above water sensor suite, and integration of the MH-60R combat helicopter and UAV featured in the F-5000’s design."

anyway here's the CGI from inside of that article:

and here's an older one (dated 01 May 2017

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):

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Lethe said:

The plan is for 9 future frigates.

Personally I suspect we would be better off with a larger number of smaller frigates. Ships can only be in one place at a time, and Australia has a lot of ocean territory to cover.

5 Hobart-class destroyers
12 4000-ton frigates
8 Soryu SSKs

Is probably the fleet I would've built.

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Jeff Head said:

Take a look at Lockheed's answer:

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