With our focus this month on sustainment and skilling, the three Cs of competition, collaboration and consolidation are key for industry.

The Taliban are commonly perceived as a bunch of steely-eyed bearded fanatics intent on reimposing their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam on Afghanistan. Increasingly, the Taliban is emerging as a bunch of steely-eyed bearded fanatics intimately linked to the world's biggest narcotics operation.

Of all the future conflict scenarios routinely wargamed and simulated, that pitting the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) against the US and allies over Taiwan and the South China, is where the stakes are highest and the outcome closest.

The White Paper is to be moved up by a year and an update of the Defence Capability Plan to work into that schedule, it seems that once again a holding pattern has emerged.

So Australia is set to withdraw from Afghanistan a year earlier than planned. Actually we're not, though the government's artful spin sure left a lot of people thinking precisely that.

In the case of Defence, as long as your machine is a core capability, it will continue to go ping under the Budget released last month.

As we approach the Federal Budget, it seems that the short-term budget issues that Defence will face means that decisions are being made without long term goals in mind.

Back in 1999, US Marine Corps commander General Charles Krulak outlined a theory which remains highly influential, that of the three-block war and the strategic corporal.

Some time, perhaps in the 2030s, Australia could well encounter a submarine capability gap, with insufficient submarines available for operations as older Collins boats retire at the end of their life and new submarines enter service.

After being immersed in local defence industry issues for over a decade in one role or another and then not paying too much attention at all for the past three years, a few things stood out for me at ADM 2012.

As this edition of ADM was coming together, two announcements on the procurement of major platforms were made on the same day.

When dealing with all ‘projects land’ it’s hard to go past the two big vehicle programs: Land 121 Project Overlander and Land 400. The various phases of Overlander have long been examined on the pages of ADM over the years and this edition is no exception.

For the last decade Australia has maintained a significant land force in Afghanistan but as the long awaited drawdown looms, there are some interesting decisions to be made. One is the perennial, which has faced every army ending an extended conflict – what the heck do we do now?

One of the great what-ifs of recent defence policy relates to long running plans to acquire a new aircraft carrier to replace HMAS Melbourne.

This may not come as big news to many people but reviews don’t fix issues in government or anywhere else for that matter. They can point out where a process went wrong, assign responsibility and make recommendations but they don’t actually fix anything.

The move for a major expansion of US military training on Australian territory has been interpreted in a variety of ways. US President Barack Obama said it was all part of America renewing its interest in the Asia-Pacific region.