Kia ora and welcome to the Spring 2025 edition – and 37th issue – of Line of Defence Magazine!
In this edition, we’re privileged to be joined by contributing writers Hon Dr Wayne Mapp QSO, Assoc Prof Chris Ogden of the University of Auckland, Australian Strategic Policy Institute visiting fellow Dr Eric Frécon, former RNZN Officer Andrew Watts ONZM, former New Zealand Army officers Ben Morgan, Josh Wineera, Derek Tunui, and Graeme Doull, Rob Mather, VP Aerospace & Defence at IFS, and Dr Alberto Ardid of the University off Canterbury.
A big shout-out and thank you to this edition’s headline sponsors Babcock, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, and new sponsor Ventia. The support of these organisations is a critical enabler for the continued publication of Line of Defence Magazine.
Read or download the 52-page full-colour Winter 2025 edition:
In Defence, this edition boasts a varied yet interconnected line-up of timely articles across which the themes of innovations in drone warfare, maritime platform modularity, and rightsizing for Pacific deployments predominate.
Graeme Doull, who debuted as a Line of Defence author last edition, returns with two articles this time around. In the first of these he argues that intentionally designing an NZDF focused on the Pacific necessitates tough decisions around force structure and capability platforms.
Ben Morgan writes that powers preparing for future conflict in the Pacific will need to develop two key capabilities in their future forces – the capability to capture islands, and to hold them. That means infantry.
In his second article, Graeme writes that New Zealand risks falling behind amid a drone-enabled transformation in warfare. We need a fundamental shift in both military strategy and our approach to innovation – and political leadership is needed.
Senior contributor Dr Wayne Mapp suggests that the government signalling that defence expenditure will be at 2% of GDP by the early 2030s can only signify an increased naval fleet, and a one-to-one replacement would not be seen as stepping up. Andrew Watts writes that modularity, flexibility, and the exploitation of autonomy should inform New Zealand’s maritime fleet renewal.
In International Security, Dr Eric Frécon writes that France’s National Strategic Review reveals that a focus on Europe and the Pacific is not mutually exclusive, and that France shares key shared interests with countries of the Blue Pacific. Identifying 2017 as the year that gave flight to the Indo-Pacific concept, my article suggests that an Indo-Pacific lens makes understanding China harder at just the time we need to be understanding Beijing’s activities in the region better.
And there’s plenty more in this 37th issue of Line of Defence Magazine. Nicholas Dynon, Auckland.
