Australia’s plan to confront the changing face of warfare – podcast

The defence strategic review has found that the Australian defence force is ‘not fully fit for purpose’ and recommended projecting military power further from its shores. Foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst talks to Jane Lee about the future of the ADF How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know The Guardian

China carries out anti-missile tests amid opposition to US systems in South Korea

China carried out a test of “ground-based midcourse anti-missile intercept technology” that “achieved its expected purpose”, the defence ministry in Beijing has said, describing it as defensive and not aimed at any country. Beijing has tested missile interceptors before; the most recent previous public announcement of a test was in February 2021, and before that in 2018. State media has said China has conducted anti-missile system tests since at least 2010. China has been ramping up research into all sorts of missiles, from those that can destroy satellites in space…

Future Fund forced to divest $5m from sanctioned Chinese weapons company

The Future Fund has been forced to divest about $5m in taxpayers’ money from a Chinese state-controlled weapons manufacturer sanctioned for selling arms to the genocidal Myanmar military. Last year, the Guardian revealed that Australia’s sovereign wealth fund had invested $4.9m in five subsidiaries of the Chinese arms conglomerate Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). AVIC had sold the Myanmar military K-8 light combat aircraft, 16 JF-17M combat aircraft, 40 short-range PL-5E missiles and 24 longer-range PL-12 missiles. The Future Fund divested from AVIC in November, a month after the…

China launched second missile during July hypersonic test, reports say

China’s launch of a nuclear-capable missile carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle also included the unprecedented launch of a separate missile from that vehicle, according to multiple reports. The test showed China’s development of its strategic, nuclear-capable weapons as more advanced than any had thought, surprising Pentagon officials, the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal reported. The test, thought to have taken place in July, made global headlines when it emerged last month that the vehicle had flown into space and completed a partial orbit of the Earth. Now, the test…

US ‘very concerned’ despite China denials over hypersonic missile

The United States is “very concerned” about China’s development of hypersonic technology, the US disarmament ambassador, Robert Wood, has said, after reports that Beijing had recently launched a hypersonic missile with a nuclear capacity. “We are very concerned by what China has been doing on the hypersonic front,” Robert Wood told reporters in Geneva. The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Beijing had launched a nuclear-capable missile in August that circled the Earth at low orbit before narrowly missing its target. Citing multiple sources, the FT claimed the hypersonic missile…