By the time this edition of ADM hits the streets, 2012 will have begun. But before diving into the year ahead, it’s worthwhile looking at the year that was. 2011 saw ups and downs, massive changes in people and over 40 projects approved at either the first or second pass stage.

I could not let this opportunity pass without saying a very special ‘thank you’ to Gregor Ferguson who has been the mainstay of ADM’s editorial team for almost as long as the magazine has been in existence.

This is my last editorial for Australian Defence Magazine. Shortly after this edition is published the incumbent Editor, Katherine Ziesing, will return to her post and I shall be moving on to a new challenge.

There are encouraging signs that Defence is starting to understand more clearly its role in sustaining industry skills and capability.

…they just get cranky about their pensions. Military superannuation is a big moral and emotional issue as well as a financial one, and as a ‘sleeper’ it could erupt before the next election.

The past few weeks have seen a significant change in Defence’s management and governance arrangements for capability development and acquisition.

The price Australia is paying in Afghanistan continues to increase, but the ADF’s commitment is unwavering, as is its support for the troops on the ground. Australia’s approach may offer some lessons to its Coalition partners.

Shortly after the previous edition of ADM closed for press the CEO of the Defence Materiel Organisation, Dr Steve Gumley, retired at short notice from the Australian Public Service.

… or that’s the advice once given to young soldiers. Counter-intuitively, Afghanistan is a counter-insurgency campaign in which many engagements take place at ranges more typical of WW1 and WW2, with interesting implications for marksmanship training.

The news that Defence Minister Stephen Smith had added his own voice to critics of Australia's cricket selectors triggered a number of responses from industry observers.

It was fortuitous (perhaps) that news of delays on the AWD Project broke just before a Senate estimates committee hearing provided the DMO with the chance to tell its story first. But is it really only a capacity issue?

This year’s defence budget is instructive: it highlights the huge difference between the Defence and Industry views of the business environment in which they cohabit.

The death of Bin Laden has raised some interesting questions about the nature of the relationship between the US and Pakistan. And how our own security framework performs.

Ladies and gentlemen, there will be a short pause in my communications whilst I head off on my own capital acquisition project for a few months of maternity leave.

In the wake of lurid headlines about how the defence top brass was being pampered by the arms industry, defence has issued a brand new directive warning officials against free lunches.

One question which doesn’t seem to have been asked from the HMAS Success commission of inquiry is just how outraged should defence and the nation be about a bunch of sailors getting really drunk and misbehaving while on leave.