The audit objective was to examine whether the Department of Defence has effective and efficient sustainment arrangements for the Royal Australian Navy’s fleet of eight ANZAC class frigates.

The federal government is investing $90 billion in continuous naval shipbuilding, a longterm plan to create economic growth and thousands of jobs for generations to come. This discussion paper provides an overview of the workforce needs of the national naval shipbuilding enterprise and where the workforce is likely to come from.

This paper analyzes the largest and most expensive procurement projects undertaken by either country, Canada’s $73 billion (estimated) National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), launched in 2010, and Australia’s A$90 billion Naval Shipbuilding Plan (NSP), launched in 2017. Each project represents an attempt to implement a rational, multi-decade approach to naval acquisition.

This report argues that if American policymakers can make sound decisions about how to evolve the capabilities, operating concepts and posture of their armed forces, and embed these in sensible policies for the region, a balance of power can be sustained.

The ‘grey zone’ has received much publicity in recent years as certain nation-states have employed indirect methods to achieve advantage over their opponents without recourse to open kinetic warfare.