Defence & Security Podcast Network

Momentum Media

The Defence & Security Podcast Network hosts a unique series of podcasts, featuring discussions with key enablers from across the Australian defence and security industry. The podcasts provide the perfect blend of business intelligence and insights from a range of guests, which include government officials, ADF personnel, industry stakeholders, and members of the academic community. By aligning ourselves with the ADF and the Commonwealth government, we are uniquely placed to deliver a dynamic 360° platform that bridges the gap between the customer (Defence) and industry. We split our focus not just into the traditional sectors of Land (Army), Air (Air Force) and Sea (Navy), but into the six new Capability Streams: - Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Electronic Warfare and Cyber - Key Enablers - Air and Sea Lift - Maritime and Anti-Submarine Warfare - Strike and Air Combat - Land Combat and Amphibious Warfare As Defence moves to ensure the Force Structure Review and the First Principles Review: Creating One Defence plans are met, Australian industry involvement is critical for mission success. The Defence & Security Podcast Network will provide you and your business with valuable lessons, tips and insights into the industry, putting your company in the best position to take part in the increased Defence spending. We'll cover every aspect of doing business in the defence industry, from the tender process to recruitment, success stories, access points to Defence, smart business strategies, and geopolitical insights. Subscribe to the Defence & Security Podcast Network and be part of this exciting and innovative industry.

  1. 20 hr ago

    THE PROGRESS REPORT: Against the tide – Captain Mona Shindy on gender, culture and change in the Royal Australian Navy

    Someone has to take the plunge and shoulder the burden. A pioneer forging the path for the future generations of women in the Australian Defence Force, no matter the consequences. Royal Australian Navy Captain (Ret'd) Mona Shindy shares her unique journey serving in the Royal Australian Navy as a warship weapons engineer, becoming one of the first three women to serve on an Australian warship, being selected as the first female captain to wear a hijab and, finally, leaving a legacy as the inaugural and only chief of navy strategic advisor on Islamic cultural affairs. In this episode of The Progress Report, senior journalist Robert Dougherty sits down with Captain Shindy to discuss her extraordinary career spanning more than 25 years in the Royal Australian Navy, her trauma and triumphs navigating the treacherous waters of gender bias, cultural expectations and resistance to change. The pair also look ahead to the future, how Defence has improved and how it can better understand and support personnel from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. Beyond her own career, Shindy reflects on leadership, the nature of negative military culture, her memoir, Shattering identity bias, and a newly launched Mona Shindy Foundation designed to provide mentoring, networks and support to people who may not otherwise have access to them. The Progress Report. New voices. Real stories. Big shifts. Enjoy the podcast, The Progress Report team

    THE PROGRESS REPORT: Against the tide – Captain Mona Shindy on gender, culture and change in the Royal Australian Navy

  2. 1 day ago

    UK–Australia defence cooperation, GCAP and CEA advanced radar, with UK Minister Luke Pollard

    How can the UK and Australia deepen defence industry cooperation while balancing high-end capabilities with Ukrainian-style affordable mass? In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, senior journalist Robert Dougherty is joined by UK Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard during his current visit to Australia. Minister Pollard is undertaking a broader tour of the country's defence industry and headlining the Australian British Chamber of Commerce's Defence Industry Lunch in Perth on 17 August. The podcast conversation includes the following topics: The UK's approach to the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), Canada's new observer status and the potential for further international partners to join the program. The UK's focus on building defence capabilities with allies through shared workshares, technology and industrial cooperation. Defence technology co-development with Ukraine, including two-way intellectual property sharing and the scaling of Ukrainian and British capabilities. The role of innovation and rapidly changing electronic warfare requirements in shaping how Western militaries support Ukraine. The UK's approach to a "high-low-mid mix" of defence advanced platforms, mid-range systems and affordable mass. Opportunities for Australian defence companies to enter the UK market, including the potential integration of CEA Technologies' active electronically scanned array radar into UK capabilities. Finally, the discussion wraps up by examining how closer UK–Australia defence industry partnerships can strengthen sovereign capability while creating skilled jobs, apprenticeships and long-term employment opportunities in both countries. Enjoy the podcast, The Defence Connect team

    UK–Australia defence cooperation, GCAP and CEA advanced radar, with UK Minister Luke Pollard

  3. 5 days ago

    CYBER UNCUT: Inside the OT threat landscape, with Dragos' field CTO APAC, Alex Nehmy

    In this episode of Cyber Uncut, Cyber Daily's Liam Garman is joined by Alex Nehmy, who explains why securing critical infrastructure requires a different approach to traditional IT security. Discover why operational technology has become one of the highest-value targets for sophisticated threat actors, how attacks on OT differ from conventional data breaches, and why visibility into industrial environments is the foundation of effective defence. The discussion explores real-world examples of cyber attacks causing physical disruption, the growing risks posed by supply chains and connected devices, and why the idea of a truly "air-gapped" network is often more myth than reality. The conversation also examines how AI is reshaping both offensive and defensive cyber operations, the challenges organisations face in protecting modern extended OT (XOT) environments, and the practical steps security leaders can take to improve resilience against nation-state threats. Whether you're responsible for IT, OT, or critical infrastructure, this episode offers valuable insights into one of cyber security's most important and rapidly evolving battlegrounds. Listen now to hear how security leaders can strengthen their OT defences, reduce risk, and stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated cyber adversaries. Enjoy, The Cyber Uncut team

    CYBER UNCUT: Inside the OT threat landscape, with Dragos' field CTO APAC, Alex Nehmy

  4. 6 Aug

    From hardware to algorithms – how Defence is embedding AI into warfare without surrendering human accountability

    Defence's chief data officer and AI strategist explain how autonomy reshapes decision making while keeping commanders accountable for outcomes   The Australian Defence Force's approach to artificial intelligence and autonomous systems is not a rush towards unmanned warfare, it is a disciplined pivot toward decision-aid systems that augment human judgement rather than replace it. Speaking ahead of ADSTAR 2026, Defence's chief data integration officer, Dr Paul Robards, and chief of space, intelligence, national security and cyber division, Andrew Seedhouse, outline how the Defence Force is engineering accountability into AI systems at scale.    The centrepiece is a philosophy that officers remain personally accountable for all decisions, with AI functioning as a high-powered analytical support tool rather than an autonomous agent. The challenge is acute. Defence systems now ingest vast volumes of sensor data, satellites, drones, communications and cyber intelligence, creating information overload rather than clarity.   AI's role is to parse this deluge, surface decision options ranked by strategic utility and present them with full traceability back to the source data. Commanders retain the final say; algorithms provide the why. Both speakers emphasise the tension between technological velocity and governance rigour. Frontier AI labs release new capabilities weekly. Defence's testing, security validation and policy alignment move faster than legacy defence timelines but must remain slower than pure research cycles. Experimental systems run on ranges with physical limiters; enterprise systems sit firewalled in sandboxes until rigorous vetting confirms fitness for operational deployment. Equally critical is Australia's industrial capacity challenge. Ukraine's autonomous systems success reflects decades of manufacturing expertise. Australia must build equivalent capability rapidly yet cannot rely on Defence alone to sustain industry. Commercial diversification and allied procurement partnerships are essential. The strategic upside for a middle power is stark: AI enables capability multiplication without conventional force parity. Small teams wielding superior analytics and autonomous systems can achieve disproportionate effect. The hard work now is execution without ethical compromise.   Enjoy the podcast,  The Defence Connect team

    From hardware to algorithms – how Defence is embedding AI into warfare without surrendering human accountability

  5. 5 Aug

    CONTESTED GROUND: Weak, vulnerable, backwater – Australia's choice between strategic camps and managed decline

    Dr Ross Babbage warns that without urgent economic reform and industrial recalibration, Australia risks becoming a client state of Beijing. Returning to the Defence Connect Podcast, strategic analyst Dr Ross Babbage delivers an unsparing diagnosis: Australia is drifting towards a future of strategic weakness, economic vulnerability and de facto dependence on Beijing – unless the nation urgently reverses course on industrial policy, governance efficiency and the information asymmetry crippling public debate. In a wide-ranging conversation with host Steve Kuper, Babbage articulates an emerging geopolitical fracture: the world is crystallising into distinct economic camps. The first, led by the United States and including Western democracies, is erecting selective tariffs and deepened trade ties. Camp two is China and its authoritarian satellites. A third comprises developing nations watching carefully before committing. Australia's position, Babbage argues, remains fatefully ambiguous. While virtually every Western ally has taken protective measures against Chinese manufacturing dumping and industrial subsidy – a regime he quantifies at eight to 18 times the support other nations provide – Australia has remained conspicuously reticent. China's leverage remains decisive: our iron ore and coal exports are non-negotiable parts of Beijing's strategic calculus. The deeper problem, he stresses, runs through economic governance itself. Australia has deindustrialised deliberately over three decades, shed critical capabilities in steel and advanced manufacturing, surrendered energy cost advantage and starved investment in domestic capability. Without deliberate recalibration – smaller government, redirection of trade partnerships, strategic investment incentives – Australia defaults towards clientelism. Equally critical is the communication void. Defence industry leaders, board chairs of major firms and even policymakers routinely tell Babbage they were unaware of the scale of Chinese subversion, intellectual property theft and coordinated disintegration operations aimed at fracturing Western cohesion. The path forward, he argues, demands frank public briefings, ruthless priority setting and abandonment of exhausted economic orthodoxies. Without it, Australia becomes the strategic backwater Beijing expects. Enjoy the podcast,  The Contested Ground team

    CONTESTED GROUND: Weak, vulnerable, backwater – Australia's choice between strategic camps and managed decline

  6. 4 Aug

    Undersea dominance – Australia charts the maritime future through autonomous systems and AUKUS innovation

    Australia's next strategic edge will be built beneath the waves, combining autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and AUKUS cooperation to reshape the underwater battlespace. In a special Defence Connect Podcast episode recorded for the ADSTAR 2026 summit, Admiral Stephen Hughes, on the eve of his retirement, and Chief of Air and Maritime Dr Ninh Duong outline how the succession of Defence Strategic Reviews since 2023 has crystallised a seismic shift in Australian naval posture. The Indo-Pacific underwater domain, they contend, has become irreversibly more contested, more congested and increasingly transparent – demanding not just new platforms, but fundamentally reimagined operational concepts. The centrepiece of this transformation remains Australia's commitment to conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines. But equally critical, ADML Hughes emphasises, is the emergence of a distributed, scalable ecosystem of uncrewed systems: the Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle developed with Anduril, the C2 Robotics Speartooth platform and surface vessels like Ocius Bluebottle. These systems, he argues, function not as replacements for crewed capability, but as force multipliers – saturating the environment, absorbing risk and freeing high-end platforms to deliver the deterrent effect only sophisticated platforms can provide. Yet the genuine strategic revolution lies not in platforms themselves but in the algorithms, payloads and interoperable control architectures that AUKUS Pillar 2 is cultivating. Dr Duong stresses that Australia's comparative advantage rests in the convergence of technologies: advanced sensing, edge processing, AI-enabled decision support, and the governance frameworks that will allow sovereign capability to scale across allied networks. Both speakers emphasise a persistent communication gap: the failure of public discourse to articulate the integrated logic thread binding the National Defence Strategy, the Defence Industry Strategy, and emerging science and technology roadmaps. Without that coherence in messaging, they warn, political pressure and social media fragmentation risk fracturing public support for the whole ambitious edifice. As Australia readies for the post-Hughes era, the maritime imperative remains unambiguous – and technologically, strategically and diplomatically complex. Enjoy the podcast, The Defence Connect team

    Undersea dominance – Australia charts the maritime future through autonomous systems and AUKUS innovation

  7. 3 Aug

    CYBER UNCUT: Aussie AI, 900k impacted by Origin hack, Victorian courts breached, and eSafety v Telegram

    In this week's podcast, Cyber Daily's Daniel Croft and David Hollingworth argue for sovereign Australian AI, catch up with the Origin Energy data breach, uncover a Court Services Victoria hack, and ponder the efficacy of taking a foreign chat platform to court over terror content. Should Aussie banks have access to Australian Taxation Office data to stop fraud? That's how the podcast kicks off, alongside the revelation that fraudsters are using AI to fake documents to secure massive bank loans. For Hollingworth and Croft, the answer is a resounding yes, which is also the case when it comes to sovereign AI capability, as Australian company Maincode brings its own coding agent online. This week, Origin Energy revealed the extent of its recent data breach, while Court Services Victoria disclosed it had fallen victim to prolific hacker 2019. It's been a torrid time for data security in Australia, with even an insider threat rearing its head in a data breach at NSW Health. Finally, the pair discuss whether or not eSafety can effectively sue chat platform Telegram over pro-terror content, while the Australian Communications and Media Authority said it is suing Optus over its Triple Zero failures last year. Just another week in cyber security. Enjoy, The Cyber Uncut team

    CYBER UNCUT: Aussie AI, 900k impacted by Origin hack, Victorian courts breached, and eSafety v Telegram

  8. 30 Jul

    Australian Army Cadets pathways, submarine industry growth and Australia's fuel security

    How can Australia strengthen its future defence workforce while building sovereign industrial capability across shipbuilding, sustainment and advanced military technology? In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, Stephen Kuper, Robert Dougherty and Bethany Alvaro unpack a series of developments across Australia's defence and industrial landscape, including new pathways into higher education through the Australian Army Cadets, growth in the submarine supply chain and emerging defence industry opportunities. Discussion includes a new initiative from James Cook University that recognises the Australian Army Cadets experience as part of university admissions and the role cadet programs can play in building future defence capability. The team also examines major announcements linked to Australia's naval industrial base, including a contract awarded to Bisalloy Steels to support construction of Virginia Class submarines and the selection of a contractor to design a floating dry dock that will support Australia's future nuclear-powered submarine fleet. Attention then turns to the announcement of a pre-feasibility study into a proposed new Australian oil refinery and the broader implications for national preparedness and economic security. The panel also explores developments unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow, including the appearance of the MQ-28 Ghost Bat alongside the Meteor beyond-visual-range missile, Boeing's plans to establish international manufacturing hubs, and growing international interest in next-generation combat aircraft programs such as the Global Combat Air Programme. Rounding out the episode, the team discusses comments about the Ghost Shark, chemical weapons restrictions and facial recognition from Anduril founder Palmer Luckey. Enjoy the podcast, The Defence Connect team

    Australian Army Cadets pathways, submarine industry growth and Australia's fuel security
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About

The Defence & Security Podcast Network hosts a unique series of podcasts, featuring discussions with key enablers from across the Australian defence and security industry. The podcasts provide the perfect blend of business intelligence and insights from a range of guests, which include government officials, ADF personnel, industry stakeholders, and members of the academic community. By aligning ourselves with the ADF and the Commonwealth government, we are uniquely placed to deliver a dynamic 360° platform that bridges the gap between the customer (Defence) and industry. We split our focus not just into the traditional sectors of Land (Army), Air (Air Force) and Sea (Navy), but into the six new Capability Streams: - Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Electronic Warfare and Cyber - Key Enablers - Air and Sea Lift - Maritime and Anti-Submarine Warfare - Strike and Air Combat - Land Combat and Amphibious Warfare As Defence moves to ensure the Force Structure Review and the First Principles Review: Creating One Defence plans are met, Australian industry involvement is critical for mission success. The Defence & Security Podcast Network will provide you and your business with valuable lessons, tips and insights into the industry, putting your company in the best position to take part in the increased Defence spending. We'll cover every aspect of doing business in the defence industry, from the tender process to recruitment, success stories, access points to Defence, smart business strategies, and geopolitical insights. Subscribe to the Defence & Security Podcast Network and be part of this exciting and innovative industry.

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