Why Australia Needs The B-21

The B-21 Raider is expected to be the world’s most advanced, cost-effective long-range strike capability. Australia must make the case to our US allies to procure and house B-21s

ON THE character of modern conflict, ADFA’s Professor David Kilcullen often cites former CIA director James Woolsey’s description of the post-Soviet era’s geopolitical arena. “We have slain a large dragon, but we live now in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes. And in many ways, the dragon was easier to keep track of,” Woolsey said at his confirmation hearing. Indeed, Professor Kilcullen resonated with the notion so much so that it formed the basis of his book, The Dragons and The Snakes.

The metaphor is easy enough to understand. In conflict, it is sometimes simpler to deal with the behemoth. You understand their motives, of which they may be centrally crafted and of one mind. Further, they may be confined to a geographical region or perhaps bounded by ideological constraints.