Australia’s F/A-18 Hornets seem set to fly a bit beyond their planned 2020 retirement date which is looking increasingly likely to be pushed out a few more years because of delays with the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.

Despite being announced over five years and a few defence and prime ministers ago, the Defence trade treaty between the US and Australia is still under consideration in Australia.

It never ceases to amaze me how much Army is made up of its people more than perhaps its sister services. In a nutshell Air Force has its planes and jets, Navy has its ships and submarines and Army has trucks and people. Of course, there is so much more to it than that but the essence of what Army does is about the solider on the ground.

Many years ago when this correspondent was a member of his school cadet unit, he was roundly abused by a cadet sergeant whose raised and belittling language sure hurt his feelings.

With our focus this month on sustainment and skilling, the three Cs of competition, collaboration and consolidation are key for industry.

The Taliban are commonly perceived as a bunch of steely-eyed bearded fanatics intent on reimposing their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam on Afghanistan. Increasingly, the Taliban is emerging as a bunch of steely-eyed bearded fanatics intimately linked to the world's biggest narcotics operation.

Of all the future conflict scenarios routinely wargamed and simulated, that pitting the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) against the US and allies over Taiwan and the South China, is where the stakes are highest and the outcome closest.

The White Paper is to be moved up by a year and an update of the Defence Capability Plan to work into that schedule, it seems that once again a holding pattern has emerged.

So Australia is set to withdraw from Afghanistan a year earlier than planned. Actually we're not, though the government's artful spin sure left a lot of people thinking precisely that.

In the case of Defence, as long as your machine is a core capability, it will continue to go ping under the Budget released last month.

As we approach the Federal Budget, it seems that the short-term budget issues that Defence will face means that decisions are being made without long term goals in mind.

Back in 1999, US Marine Corps commander General Charles Krulak outlined a theory which remains highly influential, that of the three-block war and the strategic corporal.

Some time, perhaps in the 2030s, Australia could well encounter a submarine capability gap, with insufficient submarines available for operations as older Collins boats retire at the end of their life and new submarines enter service.

After being immersed in local defence industry issues for over a decade in one role or another and then not paying too much attention at all for the past three years, a few things stood out for me at ADM 2012.

As this edition of ADM was coming together, two announcements on the procurement of major platforms were made on the same day.

When dealing with all ‘projects land’ it’s hard to go past the two big vehicle programs: Land 121 Project Overlander and Land 400. The various phases of Overlander have long been examined on the pages of ADM over the years and this edition is no exception.