Designing the Future: Thinking About Joint Operations

Future Land Warfare Essay Collection

Foreword

Change is hard. As Army’s Future Land Warfare, we contest ideas, encourage discourse and propose concepts that are often not to the satisfaction of every faction, agenda, or interest-group focused on the generation of land power as part of the Australian Defence Force. It is for this reason that the selected essays, written by members of the Australian Army Research Centre, the Australian Army History Unit, the Robotics and Integrated Technologies Coordination Office, and the Land Force Design and Force Structure Directorates serve as an example of the institutional approach that Army needs to apply in terms of leading change and debating the future of the Australian Army.

For Army, the sheer scale of what its future capability investment truly means to the current and future force remains somewhat unrealised. In order to bring these capability challenges into focus, Army needs its best minds to form an argument, state it in written form, and then defend it. The authors within these pages represent some of these important thinkers. Originally written for the 2020 Chief of Joint Operations Essay competition, these papers span some of the important priorities of an Army that is firmly focused on its transformation. Issues of strategic narratives, force design, emerging technologies, future workforce and intelligence systems are all important topics fundamental for its future modernisation. In introducing these articles, I am reminded of our Chief of Army’s stated intent from his 2019 ‘Army’s contribution to Defence Strategy’:

‘…this document is designed to create a shared understanding of how Army contributes to Defence in a time of accelerating change. This understanding sets the foundation for Army’s next iteration of thinking to enhance future design’.

The same could be said for this publication. A special mention to Lieutenant Colonel Yvette Pavlis, who was awarded first prize for her contribution. A worthy winner.

Good Soldiering.

Brigadier Ian Langford
Director General Future Land Warfare