Chief of Army’s Exercise Proceedings 2006

In a world of complex war and unconventional threats 'amongst the people', of demographic and budgetary constraints and rapidly evolving technology, how does the Army situate itself to fulfil its obligations to the Australian Government? In recent times, the Army has simultaneously conducted high-intensity warfighting, peacekeeping deployments and counterinsurgency operations - and the foreseeable future suggests more of the same.

The 2006 Chief of Army's Exercise, a biennial conclave of Army's Senior Leadership Group, introduced and explored themes important to Army. It was a unique opportunity to reflect upon contemporary activity, of both the land Army and the policy environment, in closed surroundings, free from the pressures of staff duties and operational demands. Invited specialists provided international, joint, interagency and academic perspectives on the issues and challenges of today and tomorrow that confront the Army.

The 2006 Exercise was based around the three focus themes:

• Mission Command: the challenges of decision-making in complex, ambiguous, and volatile environments.
• A 'system approach' to problem solving: 'how to think' versus 'what to think'.
• The Land-Air partnership: Leveraging responsive, precise and discriminative joint offensive support to enhance the power of the small combines-arms team.

Over two days, the invited audience discussed and debated these topics, aligning their thinking of the problem-space and seeking ways forward.

This volume contains the substance of those professional deliberations and, for the first time, makes public the intellectual activity that drives the continuing evolution of the Australian Army.