“Greens react to PM's confirmation that Australians were on US submarine”
As ever it is frustrating that opposition parties confuse legitimate Qs over the status of RAN personnel with falsities about the legality of the sub attack itself
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...
Errrmmm, what??!! 🤔🤷♂️
Top piece from @japarker29.bsky.social on the RAN’s big birthday and the challenges it faces. 🎂🎉🍾
www.aspistrategist.org.au/at-125-the-r...
The big question is whether these nations are willing to follow words with actions.
On first glance this move by European nations to enforce existing laws and regulations re the shadow fleet looks to be an excellent step, and a potential positive outcome from the arguably more destabilising US moves.
www.navylookout.com/european-coa...
Extremely powerful speech by Carney.
It will be interesting to see if/how the Australian government responds.
I suspect they will keep on putting the sign in the window…
paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney...
Armed sailing vessels - wouldn’t have been on my bingo card ten years ago!
www.defensenews.com/naval/2026/0...
That the ship was stateless as its registry to Russia was not completed properly, and that it had broken UN sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
Interesting UK justification for seizure of tanker in N Atlantic. As others have noted it is framed very differently from 🇺🇸.
In doing so it raises real questions about whether 🇬🇧 is serious in its efforts to counter the “shadow fleet”, and if so why stop here…
Interested to see the specific legal framing of this action by 🇬🇧.
Are they challenging the validity of the transfer to 🇷🇺 flag, or is it something else?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
"Latvia finds no link between ship and Baltic cable breach, probe goes on."
This is a helpful reminder of two defining features of the critical undersea infrastructure (CUI) challenge.
The Ego Based Order
Latest episode of #MaritimeMatters is out. @japarker29.bsky.social & I discuss 🇺🇦 attacks on shadow fleet, 🇺🇸 seizure of tankers, and Hanwha-Austal
soundcloud.com/maritimematt...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZGh...
The announcements of the past few days leave little room but to conclude that this US administration is deeply unserious about meeting the challenge posed by the rapid expansion of the PLAN.
Vanity projects and CG cutters painted grey ain’t going to cut it.
It will simply be a massive waste of time, money and attention, and will distract from addressing the real issues in US shipbuilding
No, again!
Stalingrad Class battlecruiser vibes, anyone?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St...
Oil maybe sanctioned under 🇺🇸 domestic law, But seizing a vessel legitimately flying a flag of another nation on the high seas is 😬 2/2
This appears to be a massive escalation - the previous seizure could be justified under international law because the vessel was stateless. This doesn’t seem to be the case here. 1/2
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Boom defences are back… or at least they should be!
I don’t think that anyone would deny that there have been numerous governance failures at Aus unis, but it pretty steep for politicians to attack “corporate unis” when the funding models they have enacted have driven precisely the behaviours and culture they critique.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...
It must be very odd from the perspective of Japan, Korea, Vietnam or the Philippines watching the hysteria in Canberra over the possible deployment of PLAN vessels somewhere near Australia.
I am not saying it doesn't matter - but it highlights how remote we remain from the region's challenges
The latest episode of #MaritimeMatters is out 🚢🎙️
@japarker29.bsky.social and I talk RPDs, 🇺🇸🇵🇭 task force, 🇰🇷 subs and much more
soundcloud.com/maritimematt...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufMn...
My colleague Miranda Booth
presenting to the Sea Power Conference at IndoPac.
She even got in a mention of our survey on Australian public opinion regarding defence!
I’m slow to put this up, but the latest episode of #MaritimeMatters podcast is up.
@japarker29.bsky.social and I discuss all things maritime including P8s, Strikemasters, and of course AUKUS
m.youtube.com/watch?v=stCe...
That was my point in highlighting the piece. It’s a little to close to acting as a mouthpiece for (un)offical propaganda.
This piece is effectively repeating 🇨🇳 talking points dressed up in nice language.
This claim is particularly misleading as it suggests that non-regional countries are illegitimate actors in this.
What are referred to as FONOPs by 🇦🇺, 🇺🇸, 🇯🇵 etc are not conducted to assert 🇵🇭 rights, but the rights of the countries themselves.
This is a really problematic piece for it’s effort to “both sides” the issue, and in doing so legitimise 🇨🇳 claims that have been explicitly rejected under the terms of an agreement Beijing has signed.
www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
It’s remarkable that these same rules appear not to apply to Hegseth and others…
www.bbc.com/news/article...
