The Shangri-La Dialogue, held in Singapore at the weekend, is a little bit like Christmas for security boys.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s lots of big talk \u2013 of great power competition, reshaping the strategic landscape, and the deteriorating strategic environment (all said with serious, knowing faces). And there are lots of weapons announcements.<\/p>\n
For Australia, the weapons announcement came in the form of a new joint project<\/a> under the second pillar of the Aukus agreement: developing \u201ccutting-edge payloads and enabling systems\u201d for underwater drones.<\/p>\n That new \u201csignature project<\/a>\u201d was announced at a joint press conference<\/a> with the Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, the US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, and the UK defence secretary, John Healey.<\/p>\n The same announcement also revealed that Australia would buy three secondhand Virginia-class submarines from the US under Aukus<\/a>, instead of a mix of old and new, in a move to \u201csimplify supply chain management, operational and maintenance requirements, and maximise cost efficiencies\u201d.<\/p>\n Marles described the decision not to buy any new Virginia-class boats as placing \u201ca premium on simplicity\u201d but had to concede that there would be no \u201cfundamental\u201d shift in the cost of the multi-decade deal, estimated to be worth at least $370bn. This shift \u2013 a long time coming \u2013 is an admission of serious primary policy failure.<\/p>\n The language in that press conference was striking. After Hegseth had spoken, his Australian counterpart took to the podium and acknowledged \u201cmy good friend Pete Hegseth\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth remembering that Marles\u2019 \u201cgood friend\u201d \u2013 whom he described as the \u201csecretary of war\u201d \u2013 is one of the principal architects of the destruction of the international rules-based order.<\/p>\n In Iran, a \u201cceasefire\u201d notwithstanding, the US remains engaged in an illegal war<\/a> that Hegseth says it is fighting with \u201cno quarter, no mercy\u201d. In the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, US strikes on fishing boats have killed more than 200 people<\/a> over the last several months. And in Cuba, the US is engaged in a naval blockade<\/a>, causing immense, unnecessary suffering.<\/p>\n That is all, apparently, unrelated to the Australia-US alliance.<\/p>\n Richard Marles speaks as Pete Hegseth and John Healey look on during a press conference in Singapore. Photograph: Edgar Su\/Reuters<\/p>\n After acknowledging his \u201cgood friend\u201d, Marles noted that the new capabilities being developed under Aukus would be \u201cput into the hands of the warfighter\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWarfighter\u201d is one of Hegseth\u2019s favourite terms<\/a>. Using it was a choice.<\/p>\n Hegseth, as Marles would be aware, has a particular vision of the kind of warfighter he wants. Upon his return from Singapore, he blocked the promotions<\/a> of several officers, captains and one-star admirals in his latest attack on \u201cwoke\u201d leadership.<\/p>\n That is part of a pattern \u2013 Hegseth is purging the military leadership<\/a> of people who don\u2019t look or think like him. That imagery is apparently so important that military personnel wanting to attend Donald Trump\u2019s birthday UFC event<\/a> at the White House \u201cmust meet current waist-height ratio and current physical fitness standard\u201d. No \u201cfat generals<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s warfighter is hyper-masculine and unbound by \u201cstupid rules of engagement<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Is that the kind of warfighter Marles was talking about?<\/p>\n Hegseth no doubt thinks so. When asked about New Zealand \u201cfreeloading\u201d on the US, Hegseth said<\/a> allies \u201cbetter have the same capabilities we do, because if we don\u2019t, our alliance is meaningless\u201d.<\/p>\n Hegseth might have been talking about New Zealand but the message was clear. And it must be taken in the context of how the Trump administration treats its allies. Just last week Trump threatened to \u201cblow up<\/a>\u201d longtime US ally Oman if it didn\u2019t \u201cbehave\u201d.<\/p>\n The US sets the terms. And it can change them at any moment.<\/p>\n Good friends, am I right?<\/p>\n Hegseth reminded his audience that his focus was on more weapons, not \u201cempty globalist rhetoric about the rules-based international order\u201d.<\/p>\n