Land 400 has begun in earnest with the release of the RFT earlier this year. Bids are due in the box in June. That gives defence industry about two more months from when you receive this edition of ADM to decide how they’re going to go about the program.

Twenty years ago the government of the day was facing similar circumstances when it came to procuring a new submarine and new frigates.

For a Sea Power edition of ADM you might find it a little strange that there is no feature article on anything to do with submarines, the topic de jour in the maritime world. This was a very deliberate decision on my part; the huge levels of uncertainty surrounding the program is almost paralysing. We do, however, have a news story on the following page updating readers on the state of play of the program and some of the responses to the path the government has outlined.

When it comes to controversies over defence equipment, there's one that routinely tops all, far exceeding JSF, Collins submarines, air warfare destroyers and maybe even F-111s; the government's VIP aircraft fleet.

Over the past 10 to 15 years, government, defence and the DMO have spent many dollars and man hours reforming the processes by which materiel for the ADF is acquired and sustained. The endless cycle of reviews (Kinnaird, Mortimer, Black, Coles et al) continues with the First Principals Review, which is due out next year alongside a raft of other important strategic documents including a new White Paper, Defence Capability Plan and Industry Policy.

As Islamist militants surged through northern Iraq and were, it seemed, poised to swoop on Baghdad, there was much speculation about Australia committing military forces to help stem this malevolent tide.

In early July, Defence Minister David Johnston officially opened Saab Australia’s Advanced Maritime Systems Centre (AMSC) in Adelaide and, in doing so, spoke highly of Australian technology.

Japan and Australia are new best security buddies with PM Tony Abbott signing off on a program of enhanced security and defence cooperation during his visit to Tokyo in early April.

With the Abbott Government’s inaugural budget now behind us, the debate over whether it is effective or not, fair or unfair, will no doubt continue for some time.

Maybe some in defence breathed a small sigh of relief that cuts in defence public service numbers weren't as bad as hinted in pre-budget speculation but they were still pretty bad, in line with a long-term coalition view that defence contains too much tail for the number of teeth.

Expect to see plenty of bad press about the Joint Strike Fighter now that the program has entered the phase which those with knowledge of complex defence equipment have long predicted would be a problem - integrating computer software so that JSF is actually fit to go to war.

While many of the conversations I had last month were centred on the future of naval shipbuilding in Australia, this month it seems the focus is on submarines and in particular, Sea 1000 or Future Submarine.

Every morning that parliament sits in Canberra, reporters congregate outside to quiz arriving politicians on the issues of the day, especially useful for the electronic media which acquires fresh vision for morning bulletins.

First of all, welcome to the first edition of ADM with me in the editorial chair, albeit temporarily, as Katherine is away on maternity leave.

What Sea Power edition of any Defence magazine would be complete without a mention of the dreaded Valley of Death? For those living under a rock for the past few years, the term encompasses the period between 2015 and 2018/2019 when the Defence shipbuilding program become somewhat quiet. And by quiet I mean absent.

A regular Canberra end-of-year ritual, typically in early December, squeezed in with the final parliament sitting week and the start of Christmas party season, is the media launch of the cabinet documents by the National Archives of Australia (NAA).