The Torch
Illuminating Security and Defence Issues
5 Eyes Partners
What Trump’s National Security Strategy means for Australia
13 December 2025
Before its release on 4 December, the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) had been expected to emphasise increased defence burden-sharing among allies and partners; a refresh of US priorities, placing ‘America First’; a more active US role in the Indo-Pacific; and deeper multi-domain interoperability. The strategy, which sets the United States’ security agenda until January 2029, delivers on those expectations, most notably by reconnecting ends and means in pursuit of core national interests....
Trump’s Terrifying New Security Doctrine Turns Canada into a Target
13 December 2025
THE NEW NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY (NSS) issued by the White House on December 4 is the real deal, a nightmarish document to be read with care and trepidation.It can’t be dismissed as anything akin to a late-night Donald Trump tweet, a press conference outburst, or some random appearance on Fox News. It is twenty-nine pages long, and has NO CAPS. It is an encapsulation of the United States president’s belief system about how America should conduct itself in the world....
Strategic Defence Review – Making Britain Safer: secure at home,strong abroad 2025
13 December 2025
My first duty as Prime Minister is to keep the British people safe. That is why national security is the foundation of this Government’s Plan for Change. In this new era for defence and security, when Russia is waging war on our continent and probing our defences at home, we must meet the danger head on. We must recognise the very nature of warfare is being transformed on the battlefields of Ukraine and adapt our armed forces and our industry to lead this innovation. ...
Nato interest in ‘lethal’ Army vehicle, says minister
12 November 2025
The UK government says it is "confident" Nato allies are interested in buying the long-delayed south Wales built Ajax armoured vehicle. The multi-million pound vehicles, made in Merthyr Tydfil by General Dynamics, were originally due to enter service in 2019. However the project has been criticised for being poorly managed by the Ministry of Defence and was paused in June 2021 due to concerns over vibration and noise causing hearing loss to those training.
Returning the Air Force to its expeditionary roots
12 November 2025
If the United States goes to war tomorrow, its Air Force will fly and fight as the world’s best. But the service will operate in a world where the assumptions that shaped it for more than 30 years no longer hold. No longer can the Air Force rely on Bagram-style air bases as sanctuaries, thanks to anti-access and area-denial capabilities developed by China and others. To deter and defeat adversaries, the service must focus on agility, adaptability, and operating with a smaller footprint in austere environments.
Industrial mobilisation is Defence’s true test
12 November 2025
The 2025 Helsinki Geoeconomics Week, held from 11 to 15 August, confirmed a sobering reality: economic power is now inextricably linked to national security and strategic competition. The shifting tectonic plates of geopolitics are grinding away at our traditional certainties. For Australia, on the front line of new geoeconomic realities, our ability to project power and secure our interests rests not solely on the strength of our military capability, but on the depth and responsiveness of our industrial base. The necessity of industrial mobilisation for national support to Defence is now a defining strategic challenge.
A top secret US spacecraft takes flight tonight – and it could rewrite the rules of future warfare
13 October 2025
The X-37B returned to Earth this month, but details of its time in space remain hazy, to say the least....
First Sea Lord Sets Very Ambitious Targets For Royal Navy Transformation
13 October 2025
We face a world that is increasingly contested and unpredictable, with rapid technological advancements reshaping warfare. My mission is to move the Royal Navy to warfighting readiness over the next four years....
Good enough to win: rethinking risk in innovation
13 October 2025
Innovation policy is often built around optimism. But in a world of live contest across the economy, the environment and the broader geostrategic landscape, progress cannot afford to wait for perfection....
U.S. Navy Sets Sights on Fleet-Wide Family of Unmanned Ships
5 September 2025
Requirements for the Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) USV program were announced by the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office (PMS 406) this week. The program is looking to deliver up to three different USVs for wide scale operational use in the U.S. Navy as a culmination of the U.S. Navy’s extensive prototype and development of Medium and Large USVs.
Land forces tool up for potential Pacific conflict
5 September 2025
Army, Marines pursue transformation, while exercises with partner nations grow more sophisticated.
Not just a bigger budget. Here’s how to reform Defence procurement
5 September 2025
Oft-repeated, because it is true, Australia faces the most complex strategic circumstances since World War II. Instability and near-term risk of major armed conflict in our region are real.
Australia urgently needs a national security strategy
27 July 2025 -
Unlike our closest allies—including Japan, Britain and the United States—Australia lacks a unified, public-facing national security strategy to guide coordinated action across defence, diplomacy, intelligence, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, and national resilience.
The battle for Pentagon acquisition policy: tradition versus new-and-cheaper
27 July 2025 -
An upcoming battle over defence acquisition will have repercussions for US military posture, particularly in the Pacific.
Army prepping for Pacific conflict with prepositioned equipment, logistics hubs
27 July 2025 -
Moving weapons, ammunition, fuel, and even water around the vast theater will be a huge challenge.
Britain’s biggest companies are preparing for a third world war
27 July 2025 -
As various conflicts threaten to erupt, bosses are taking steps to ensure their businesses survive
Cost of Defence’s roadmap for spending 3 percent of GDP on defence
27 July 2025 -
The current debate on Defence funding, sparked by our 29 May report The Cost of Defence: ASPI Defence budget brief 2025–2026, and a subsequent US request for Australia to spend more, has swung between a call for increasing funding as a percentage of GDP and a call for making individual funding decisions on specific capabilities that the nation needs.
Navigating a Changing Military Recruitment Environment
10 June 2025 -
While there is no question the American military faces persistent challenges in attracting qualified recruits, the much-discussed recruiting crisis that has dogged most service branches in recent years appears to be easing.
Not enough money, skills or organisation: Australia’s defence build-up is too slow
10 June 2025 -
Australia’s strategic environment is more threatening than it has been since World War II. Despite public recognition of heightened threats and a declaration of ambitious strategic goals, the government’s defence funding and preparedness efforts fall short of what is urgently needed.
Five important ideas from Britain’s defence review
10 June 2025 -
It’s ‘a truly transformational and genuinely strategic review,’ according to the three external reviewers who headed its production. Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the document, Britain’s Strategic Defence Review 2025, is a ‘landmark shift in our deterrence and defence.’ In essence, the review says Britain’s armed forces, as well as industry, civil society and others, must prepare again for the possibility of a high-intensity, peer-on-peer conflict.