The United States has approved a potential $705 million sale of forty-eight M142 HIMARS to Australia, enhancing Australia’s long-range precision strike capability, homeland defence, and interoperability with U.S. and allied forces.

While artificial intelligence presents ethical, safety, and societal challenges, most experts believe its risks can be managed through regulation, research, and responsible innovation—making extinction scenarios unlikely but vigilance essential.

Long program cycles and fragmented knowledge risk repeated mistakes—an institutional memory system could preserve lessons, strengthen accountability, and improve outcomes while ensuring future shipbuilding avoids costly failures. NASA shows systematic learning prevents disasters.

Emerging technologies are extending weapon reach, while cost and availability limit scale—blurring traditional lines between offense and defence and forcing combatants to balance precision with affordability. Affordable mass emphasises quantity over extreme range.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a simulated nuclear rocket engine test bed to tackle control challenges. This system enables safe testing of autonomous controls, propellant flow, and reactor responsiveness essential for future deep-space missions.

The debate over nuclear-armed submarine-launched cruise missiles highlights a clash between capability and practicality. With strategy focused on conventional deterrence and strategic modernisation, investing in new nuclear cruise missiles would divert resources from higher priorities.

The rapid uptake of home batteries and electric vehicles, central to the government emission reductions, could be placing Australia’s energy infrastructure at risk of foreign interference; disrupting supply, weaponising the batteries or collecting intelligence data.

Expanding US Micronesian presence brings both protection and unease—communities welcome security partnerships, yet worry about sovereignty and being drawn into conflict. Palau is one of three remaining Pacific nations with Taiwanese diplomatic ties.

Authentic Stoic practices, measured by the Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS), improve resilience, life satisfaction, and emotional regulation. Key dimensions include beliefs about control and happiness, mindfulness, virtue, compassion, and a Stoic worldview.

Australia is the testing ground for new forms of information manipulation—where cyber tactics, disinformation, and influence campaigns merge to challenge national resilience and public trust across democratic systems. Disinformation targets critical-minerals and defence partnerships.