The Chief of Army opens this edition of the Australian Army Journal recognising Army's intellectual capital as a driver for innovation and change. This Journal covers diverse topics - from the relevance of the Basic Fitness Assessment in preparing soldiers for operations, analysis of the Australian Defence Force Gap year Program, to a history of staff development in the Australian Army.

James Eling reflects on the Land Forces 2022 conference held in Brisbane late last year and the opportunities for innovation highlighted by exhibitors. The emerging technologies showcased will shape the direction of future warfare.

The 2023 Defence Strategic Review states that ‘Australia’s army must be transformed and optimised for littoral manoeuvre’ as part of the ADF transition from a balanced force to one focused on applying a strategy of denial. In this Part 1 of a four-part Land Power Forum Littoral Series, Dayton McCarthy examines some key characteristics of the littoral environment in Australia's nearer region.

In response to the Defence Strategic Review's twin-fold guidance to clarify the area stretching from ‘maritime Southeast Asia into the Pacific’ as the ‘primary area of military interest’, and for Army to become adept at littoral operations, the Australian Army Research Centre (AARC) has produced a four-part series to promote further discussion. This series will be published on the Land Power Forum over the coming weeks.

This article briefly discusses the central ethical tensions between the objections raised against the use of lethal autonomous weapons generally and the potential of lethal autonomous weapons to mitigate some of the key challenges of urban warfare. Originating from the premise that the ethics of war is an ongoing negotiation between recognising the necessity of war and minimising its destructiveness, the article argues that the ethics of using lethal autonomous weapons in urban warfare cannot be appropriately weighed without a reasonable sense of what operational impact they are likely to have.

The Australian Army Research Centre (AARC) invites your contribution to the Winter Series of the AARC Short Thoughts Competition with the theme: ‘Army’s Role in Train, Advise and Assist Missions’. This is your opportunity to help further Australian land power debate. Submissions will be published in the Land Power Forum (LPF) and Defence authors of the most meritorious entries will be invited to attend an Army sponsored event in 2023 and will also be awarded a book voucher.

This article reviews the readiness of three Army force packages: the Armoured Battle Group, Ground Based Air Defence and the Reconnaissance Battle Group. Mark Mankowski asks whether the deficiencies that were identified in these force options twenty years ago have now been addressed.

In this Occasional Paper, Dr Albert Palazzo provides an introduction to the concept of land warfare, including its nature, character and how it adapts to the evolving strategic environment. Intended as a primer, this work aims to provide a start-point for a career-long journey of study and reflection on the topic.

The Australian Civil Military Centre (ACMC) is seeking project proposals and scholarly articles from interested researchers and authors. This Post shares a Call for Proposals recently issued by the ACMC that identifies research themes and submission guidelines. Completed research will be published in the ACMC Research Compendium.
Submissions close on 3 March 2023.

The use of Special Operations Forces (SOF) in recent conflicts has entrenched the perception of these elements as a direct-action tool capable of providing decisive effects. Concomitantly, there has been an increasing reliance on technological solutions to generate asymmetry against existing threats.
Occasional Paper 13 suggests that as the war-peace paradigm is replaced by a more fluid competition-conflict spectrum, SOF must adjust to a campaign approach that seeks to leverage the poles of low and high technology while maintaining their mid-tech capabilities. This would allow SOF to generate cost-efficient and enduring options that establish asymmetry against the increasing technological capability of competitors.

This edition of the Australian Army Journal (AAJ) examines the foundations of professional mastery and doctrine, and reinforces the proposition that how we think inevitably affects how we perform.

In Occasional Paper 12, Jason Logue addresses the imperative for evolution in the ADF's approach to operations in the information environment.
In a well considered and timely analysis, he identifies the key challenges and opportunities for change, recommending a way forward based on his years of practical experience.

This Spotlight Brief examines Russia’s combined-arms approach during its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. To provide context, it discusses the primary Russian tactical unit of action, the Battalion Tactical Group. It subsequently explores a range of observations on the application of combined-arms at the tactical level during the initial phases of the invasion. It concludes by offering a number of deductions pertinent to the Australian Army’s own application of combined-arms.

As reviewer Al Palazzo observes, while Ben Barry's book 'Blood, Metal and Dust' is not a definitive piece of work, it hits the highlights of the US and British military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively.

This post is a transcript of a speech delivered by Major General Chris Smith to the US Army Maneuver War Fighter Conference on 17 February 2022. In it, Smith reflects on elements of the debate in Australia about the potential for war in the Indo-Pacific and its implications for land forces.

Williamson Murray reviews five case studies of military adaptation in warfare and draws out lessons for the modern military. Reviewer Chris Roberts commends the book and its appeal to military leaders to inform preparedness planning with the critical and honest appraisal of previous battlefield performance.

A product of Michael Goya’s doctoral thesis, Chris Roberts reviews the work of the former Colonel of the French marine infantry as easily read, and a superb study of the transformation of the French Army during the Great War.

Chris Roberts review highlights Mitchinson’s comprehensive study of a solid, yet unremarkable division that had its origins in the creation of the Territorial Force (TF) in 1908. The 48th (South Midland) Division 1908-1919 provides a very worthy history of that effort that will appeal to those with an interest in the Great War.

In tone with the recent CAS2022 this 2021 legacy Spotlight Brief emphasises issues relating to robotics and autonomous systems (RAS). Highlighting the Army's commitment to expanding this capability, with unprecedented funding and support within Force Structure Plan 2020 and advanced trials across maritime, land, air, and cyber domains. In addition, Army is expanding its cognitive capability in these fields, spearheaded by the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Coordination Office (RICO) within Future Land Warfare Branch. Spotlight Brief 6/21 explicitly reflects some of the challenges that Army and the Joint Force are tackling in their efforts to bring uncrewed and autonomous platforms into the battlespace.

Chris Roberts introduces a well-researched book that considers the Canadian performance on the Western Front through a slightly different lens. The study is commended as well-rounded and still significant today and is highly recommended reading for military officers.