Started to read the excellent-looking Australian 2020 Defence Strategic Update. As per previous strategic policy documents, the UK is so vital to Australia that....err...it doesn't ever get mentioned.

"Five Eyes" gets an honourable mention as an intelligence sharing in a broader, global sense.

Now, for those who claim that we are at the heart of Australian defence planning, you're going to need to come up with a really good set of reasons to explain why the UK is SO important, that we do not even a passing mention.

True, the EU doesn't get mentioned, neither does France. Sure. Obvious reasons why, in defence terms, the former is of no interest. But if the UK is anything like a cornerstone of Australian defence, why does the UK not get a single mention?

To repeat my "intellectual objection" to the UK claiming that there is any "massive" role for UK military in the Pacific region: a) without gutting other closer-to-home capabilities, what can/might be devoted to Asia-Pac would be close to negligible, b) it would be token at best.

Should the UK play a role in Asia-Pac? A lovely idea: but on current budgets/force structures, it's only ever going to be show boating. Type 31 forward-based in Singapore? It'd look like Captain Pugwash's ship compared to the sort of ships being ordered and built out in Asia-Pac.

For the RN/RAF (the Army will never have a serious role in Asia-Pac) to be taken seriously in Asia would take such a rise in UK defence spending, that one can state one thing straight away: It. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

So stop trying to pretend the UK is what it is not, and find roles/missions that we can afford, sustain, and develop. And any/all of these are going to be far closer to home (N Atlantic, W Med, a bit of the Gulf, W Indian Ocean).

For those who might fear that this is the UK "giving up", consider: is it worse to face up to reality, or to try to play a game that will bankrupt us?
Because aspirations in Asia-Pac are firmly on the bankruptcy track.