Australia Orders Review of Defence Force to Speed up ‘Military Modernisation’

An Australian Army M777 Howitzer fires at Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021. Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 (TS21) is the largest bilateral training activity between Australia and the United States, commencing on July 14, 2021. Supplied: Australian Department of Defence

The Australian Labor government is launching its promised review of the defence force to deal with the “nation’s security challenges over the next decade and beyond,” according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The latest review will be carried out by the former Labor Defence Minister Stephen Smith and former Chief of the Defence Force Angus Houston, and it comes just two years after the previous government’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update, which pivoted the nation’s military force from a defence-focused posture to an offensive one.