2023 Apr: Defence abandons White Paper model for biennial National Defence Strategy (AI Study Guides)
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2023 Apr: Defence abandons White Paper model for biennial National Defence Strategy
𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
In April 2023 the Australian Government directed Defence to replace episodic Defence White Papers with a biennial National Defence Strategy, aligning force design, preparedness, posture, and investment with accelerating strategic risk. Cabinet set an integrated-deterrence purpose, linking the Strategy to rolling investment planning and classified direction. Defence instituted governance to synchronise strategy, capability, industry, workforce, and budgets, enabling timely trade-offs and rapid updates as indicators shift. The model emphasises accountable authorities, performance measures, and iterative adaptation.
𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐬
𝟏. National Defence Strategy: Biennial direction aligning posture, preparedness, capability, and investment to risk.
𝟐. Integrated Deterrence: Coordinated military, industry, and partner power to shape adversary calculus.
𝟑. Force Posture: Geographic disposition, basing, and readiness settings to meet scenarios.
𝟒. Preparedness Settings: Measurable readiness levels driving training, sustainment, and munitions targets.
𝟓. Integrated Investment Program: Rolling capital plan that sequences capabilities for timely effects.
𝟔. Strategic Warning Time: Assessed window for conflict risk guiding readiness and investment.
𝟕. Force Design: Structured choices aligning strategy, architectures, options, and trade-offs.
𝟖. Capability Pathways: Incremental deliveries producing usable effects before full programs mature.
𝟗. Classified Guidance: Cabinet-approved direction enabling sensitive posture and targeting decisions.
𝟏𝟎. Net Assessment: Comparative power analysis across domains informing risk and options.
𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬
𝟏. Direction and cadence: Government replaced episodic White Papers with a two-year Strategy cadence aligning policy, posture, preparedness, and budgets to accelerating risk, technology cycles, and alliance coordination, ensuring guidance arrives before major budget gates and capability milestones under explicit Cabinet authority and governance. It institutionalises scenario-tested governance, performance measures, and red-team reviews to keep guidance current. [https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/media-releases/2024-04-17/2024-national-defence-strategy]
𝟐. Public–classified pairing: An unclassified Strategy pairs with classified annexes shaping basing, stockholdings, targeting priorities, readiness profiles, and escalation authorities, creating directive guidance rather than narrative, enabling timely adjustments as indicators shift and setting accountable owners, metrics, and decision timelines for ministers. Structured rules protect sources while coordination mechanisms ensure consistent implementation uniformly. [https://www.defence.gov.au/about/reviews-inquiries/defence-strategic-review]
𝟑. Investment synchronisation: The Integrated Investment Program follows the same rhythm, linking strategic effects to funded project sequences, divesting or rescoping legacy programs mismatching timelines, risk, or affordability, and prioritising increments delivering operational impact within compressed warning windows while preserving sovereign choices on cost, schedule, and capability. Decision gates align with budgets to enable disciplined changes. [https://www.defence.gov.au/about/strategic-planning/2024-national-defence-strategy-2024-integrated-investment-program]
𝟒. Effects-based focus: Planning concentrates on long-range strike, integrated air-and-missile defence, undersea denial, dispersal, hardened infrastructure, and resilient command networks, translating strategy into measurable combat power against realistic scenarios, with preparedness settings, spares, and industry surge requirements mapped to tasks, timelines, and theatres across northern approaches. Force packages and sustainment tempos are rehearsed and reported. [https://www.defence.gov.au/about/strategic-planning/2024-national-defence-strategy-2024-integrated-investment-program]
𝟓. Northern infrastructure: Upgrades to northern bases expand fuel storage, extend runways, harden magazines, and add maintenance capacity, improving survivability, dispersal, and allied operations through business cases prioritising time-urgent resilience, tested logistics, and rapid recovery from precision strike, electromagnetic disruption, and grey-zone interference targeting critical infrastructure nodes. Approvals, partnerships, and supply-chain security are embedded. [https://www.defence.gov.au/about/strategic-planning/2024-national-defence-strategy-2024-integrated-investment-program]
𝟔. Munitions resilience: The Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance enterprise sets stockholding targets, multi-year procurement, sovereign manufacture and assembly, and allied interoperability, shortening replenishment timelines and supporting surge while embedding lifecycle sustainment, certification, and safety governance to protect readiness and ensure munitions availability aligns with operational plans. Contracts emphasise multi-year stability and shared data standards. [https://www.defence.gov.au/business-industry/industry-capability-programs/guided-weapons-explosive-ordnance-enterprise]
𝟕. Alliance alignment: Biennial cycles synchronise with partners across AUKUS pathways, ranges, sensors, workforce pipelines, and exercises while preserving sovereign Cabinet control over risk decisions and classified direction; harmonised milestones improve combined testing, certification, and data sharing without ceding national discretion over operational employment or priorities. Shared exercises validate interoperability while sovereign caveats remain articulated. [https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/statements/2024-09-26/aukus-defence-ministers-meeting-communique]
𝟖. Workforce and industry: Clear two-year signals shape training pipelines, accreditation, and sustainment for submarines, air combat, and guided-weapons manufacture, reducing schedule and cost risk from workforce gaps and supply volatility by sequencing cohorts, aligning trade training, and targeting scholarships to priority locations supporting posture and industry growth. Retention levers target critical trades and regional housing support. [https://www.defence.gov.au/about/strategic-planning/defence-industry-development-strategy]
𝟗. Innovation linkage: Science-and-technology priorities align to the Strategy cadence to accelerate asymmetric capabilities from lab to unit, emphasising deployable impact within warning windows, leveraging test ranges, digital engineering, and rapid prototyping pathways to field useful increments early whilst preserving growth potential for later spirals. Transition teams manage certification, safety cases, and user training. [https://www.defence.gov.au/about/strategic-planning/accelerating-asymmetric-advantage-delivering-more-together]
𝟏𝟎. Enduring governance: Integrated boards track effect delivery, readiness, cost, schedule, and risks; ministers can adjust investment levers quickly as indicators shift, maintaining continuity between biennial updates through gated reviews, directed trade-offs, and transparent accountability across strategy, capability, finance, preparedness, and industry portfolios under Cabinet authority. Public reporting explains divestments and sequencing choices. [https://www.defence.gov.au/about/strategic-planning]
𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬
𝟏. Department of Defence. Defence 2000: Our Future Defence Force. AWM library catalogue LIB100000643. [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/LIB100000643] Australian War Memorial
𝟐. Price Waterhouse. The White Paper on the Defence of Australia: Summary Report (1987). AWM library catalogue LIB100000923. [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/LIB100000923] Australian War Memorial
𝟑. Department of Defence. Defence White Paper 1994. AWM library catalogue LIB100020739. [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/LIB100020739] Australian War Memorial
𝟒. Australian Military Forces. Report on the Military Defence of Australia (1920). AWM collection guide C2611385 (AWM1 20/7). [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2611385] Australian War Memorial
𝟓. AWM Research Centre. Collection Guides: Indexes to private records on defence policy. AWM collection-guide portal. [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/understanding-the-memorials-collection/collection-guides] Australian War Memorial
𝐅𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠
𝟏. Commonwealth of Australia, 2023, Defence Strategic Review, Canberra: Department of Defence
𝟐. Commonwealth of Australia, 2024, National Defence Strategy, Canberra: Department of Defence
𝟑. Commonwealth of Australia, 2024, Integrated Investment Program, Canberra: Department of Defence
𝟒. Commonwealth of Australia, 2024, Defence Industry Development Strategy, Canberra: Department of Defence
𝟓. Commonwealth of Australia, 2024, Accelerating Asymmetric Advantage: Delivering More, Together, Canberra: Department of Defence
𝟔. Davies, 2025, ‘Australia’s northern air bases: building resilience, slowly’, Canberra: Australian Strategic Policy Institute (The Strategist)
𝟕. The Forge (Australian Defence College), 2023, ‘How to Get Our Operational Framework Up to Speed’, Canberra: Australian Defence College
𝟖. The Forge (Australian Defence College), 2025, ‘Contested Access and Manoeuvre — Part 2’, Canberra: Australian Defence College
𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬
• Official hyperlinks are restricted to government and AWM pages to preserve authority and stability.
• AWM anchors historic policy materials; contemporary strategy artefacts sit on Defence and ministerial domains.
• Non-government analyses are cited in Harvard form without links to aid discoverability via search.