AARC Short Thoughts Competition – Spring Series 2023

‘Army’s approach to accelerated preparedness’

The scale, scope, concurrency and intensity of conceived future conflicts will require land force mobilisation. The allocation of resources to, across and between operations will vary as the strategic context and direction changes, and for which Army will need to be prepared. When the Government released the Defence Strategic Review 2023, it called for ‘tangible enhancement to our warfighting capability and to self-reliance in National Defence’ through undertaking ‘Accelerated Preparedness’. The DSR also highlighted the need for additional investment and ‘much more relevant priority setting by Defence’. Throughout Army’s history, land forces have rapidly adapted in response to crisis and to the expansion of the organisation. Doing so, however, comes with risk. As such, the question becomes: how can we best prepare for our next conceivable operation and what can Army do to reduce the burden on the organisation and on land forces?

The AARC fosters thought leadership to enhance Australian land power to help meet these challenges.  We work to raise the level of professional debate on war, military force, future land capability development, and its challenges within Army, the nation, and internationally. The AARC is the Chief of Army’s lead agency for coordinating and publishing Army’s land power research.

The AARC’s ‘Short Thoughts Competition – Spring Series 2023’ invites submission of 1000-1500 word articles with the theme ‘Army’s approach to accelerated preparedness’.  This is your opportunity to contribute your ideas about land power to Army’s senior leadership and to help shape Army’s future. We are seeking your creative, insightful and experienced views on how we might employ autonomy and robotic systems at scale in domestic emergencies or Defence of Australia tasks? Themes participants might like to address include:

• Economies of scale provided by automated solutions.
• Economies of scale through integration.
• Training solutions to expand the land force.
• Equipping an expanded force.

Entries will be published on the AARC’s LPF. Authors of the most meritorious submissions (as assessed by the Director Australian Army Research Centre) will be awarded a modest book prize and travel to attend an Army-sponsored event identified by the AARC. Further, a compilation of the best submissions will be generated.  On the basis of their published submissions, some authors may also be approached to expand on their views in presentations to Army forums.

Submission process and deadline 

Submissions are to address topics directly relevant to the competition theme:

‘Army’s approach to accelerated preparedness’.

The specific research question is:

‘How we might employ autonomy and robotic systems at scale in domestic emergencies or Defence of Australia tasks?’

Submissions are to be between 1000-1500 words in length and all content is to be at the UNCLASSIFIED level.  

Submissions will be accepted any time until 27 Oct 2023.

Publication on the LPF will commence from 30 Oct 2023.