Minister for Defence
17 articles · 17 recent · 2 source types
NATO issued resilience requirements as Australia secured a defencelinked airport lease, Germany highlighted maritime drone trials, and Europe expanded Ukraine support.

Seven governments and EU institutions advanced defence procurement, energy cooperation, sanctions, and resilience measures during week 37.

Australia announced a $2.4 billion air and missile defence investment and confirmed NASAMS had reached final operational capability.

Australia appointed Natasha Stott Despoja AC to lead a Defence inquiry into military sexual violence, with a public report expected after about 12 months.

Finland and Sweden deepened territorial surveillance cooperation, adding Swedish Gripen fighters and Visbyclass corvettes to support Finnish monitoring.

Australia chose the Henderson Defence Precinct site to support naval shipbuilding, AUKUS submarine work and skilled defence jobs in Western Australia.

Australia completed field trials of Project Boobook, a codeveloped highenergy laser system with Japan, with manufacturing investment planned.

Australia will spend nearly A$736 million on AIM260 airtoair missiles, becoming the first operator outside the United States.

Australia launched a 10year defence innovation strategy and placed a combat helmet contract with Aquaterro to support ADF capability and industry.

Australia appointed a dry dock designer and secured a US submarine steel order, deepening AUKUS maintenance and industrial links.

Official announcements showed moves on EU scrutiny, defence investment, Russia sanctions, Cuba designations and IndoPacific maritime support.

Australia committed another $4.6bn to the Osborne submarine yard, raising total investment to $8.5bn under its AUKUS programme.

EU and 6 governments moved on defence production, air defence, election observation, development policy and IndoPacific security cooperation.

Australia completed a prototype missiledefence live fire as Germany deployed a Patriot unit to Türkiye under NATO air defence.

The UK led a 12country precisionstrike programme as Britain, the Netherlands and Australia advanced medical, industrial and counterdrone measures.

The Netherlands repatriated its USAR.NL team from Venezuela and committed €3m in relief supplies, with an additional €700k to the Netherlands Red Cross, the government said.

UK launches a defence space innovation competition with up to £985k for sensors, platform selfprotection and EM resilience, partnering with UK Space Agency and Dstl.