We have a year until the ‘Davidson Window’ closes. Are we ‘Ready Now’? How about ‘Future Ready’? ⬇️
The ‘Davidson Window’ was a term coined after then USINDOPACOM Commander Admiral Davidson who testified to congress of China’s ambitions to be ready if required for large scale combat operations to take Taiwan by 2027. The US Department of War’s latest report to congress on China’s military readiness is clear on the progress made to date.
On the flip side, while progress has been made in returning the free world to a credible state of military and industrial readiness, much more still needs to be done if deterrence is to be credible. Re-read Australia’s 2023 Defence Strategic Review for yourself and form your view on where we as a nation are now at.
President Franklin D Roosevelt’s ‘Four Freedom’s’ speech in 1941 contains a great deal of optimistic but realistic analysis of the emergence of the Arsenal of Democracy that is just as applicable today as it was then:
“To change a whole nation from a basis of peacetime production of implements of peace to a basis of wartime production of implements of war is no small task. And the greatest difficulty comes at the beginning of the program, when new tools, new plant facilities, new assembly lines, and new ship ways must first be constructed before the actual materiel begins to flow steadily and speedily from them.”
While it easy to become fixated on the finished product, to rebuild Australia’s part of the Arsenal of Democracy we need to strengthen our Industrial base. Our war stocks and reserves need to include the components of industrial capacity and manufacturing might. Prime Minister John Curtin served in office between 1941 until his death in 1945 just six weeks before the War in the Pacific ended. Curtin was opposition leader when he gave a speech during the 1937 election campaign. His remarks on Defence were prescient then and relevant today:
“No longer is that doctrine of self-sufficiency merely an industrial ambition. It is now the supreme national necessity. Self defence has become increasingly a question of industrial preparedness. We must have the essential industries to feed, cloth, and transport by sea, land and air, the forces of the Commonwealth; supplies of every branch of our armed forces must be assured. Munitions of all kinds must be manufactured in Australia. We need more docks for the navy, more aerodromes and aeroplanes; oil storages and reserves, and a line of landing bases for repairs, replacements, and refuelling away from the coast.”
Australia’s expenditure on Defence was ~1% of GDP as the time under the Lyons UAP-Country Party Coalition Government. History is rich with wisdom to harvest as we plan for the challenges of the present geopolitical context.
Food for thought as always!
🖼️ World War II ‘More Production’ poster by the USA War Production Board. Links to reports and articles referred to are in the com