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The Anzac tradition does not talk much about what happens when combat morale falters and battle fatigue undermines military effectiveness. Yet, despite the Australian Army's proud history, it has not been immune from such problems. Evidence of this is not, however, likely to be found in any official history or unit report. Fortunately, the 7th Australian Infantry Brigade's campaign on Bougainville, 1944–45, allows these issues to be studied in detail. The existence of candid personal diaries and memoirs …

The Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, AO, DSC, has now endorsed a new Professional Military Education (PME) Strategy for Army.  This Strategy lays out the argument for an intellectual edge, and then directs the ends, ways and means that will be used to achieve it. 22 November 2017 ‘In April 2016 the Chief of the Australian Army commissioned the  Ryan Review , a root and branch review of Army’s education, training and doctrine system. The Review concluded that the Australian Army faced a …

The past decade has seen a steady decrease in aerial resupply tasking in support of the conventional Army. The reasons for this include the operational focus of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO); the removal of the airborne role from the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment and the retirement of the DHC-4 Caribou and C130H fleet. Now, with the significant reduction of operations in the MEAO, the shift in strategic focus towards the  Indo-Pacific Strategic …

Tactical cyberspace control is rapidly becoming central to dominating the information environment and thus will emerge as paramount for forces campaigning in the information age. This is especially salient for the Australian Army given many of our traditional adversaries, both asymmetric and conventional, are relying on the internet and converging technologies for command and control. If we wish to retain our tactical acumen against a highly capable and determined adversary it is necessary to ensure that …

I agree with Dr Palazzo’s  pragmatic observation  that considering warfare from the perspective of different Services in their own specialised dimensions or domains is unhelpful and inefficient. Warfare is more effective when undertaken as an integrated endeavour. Archers and cavalry in the Middle Ages were the preserve of specialist soldiers and, in the case of heavy cavalry, an expensive elite. However, it was only when they were combined and integrated with infantry under the command of a well-educated …

In November 2001, Australia joined the United States-led coalition in the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. There was no indication that this would be Australia's longest war. For the Australian Army, Afghanistan was a proving ground and a monumental achievement. For the Australian soldier, it was a time to put into the practice the skills for which they had been trained. To commemorate the Australian Army soldiers' role in Afghanistan, an interactive website will soon be launched. 'The …

The increased availability of information collected by space based sensors is changing our battlespace by creating new threats and opportunities. Recent advancements in commercial satellite technology have resulted in widespread public access to information that was previously only obtainable through classified intelligence programs. This post examines some of the recent trends and capabilities of commercial satellite systems and their use to inform future Army thinking. That a picture paints a thousand …

Major Leon Young’s recent article  galvanised me to consider his question  if we wished to avoid the dystopian future for the preferred utopia, how should we design the force to operate in crowded, connected, lethal, collective and constrained environments ? I decided to go back to first principles. In Hew Strachan’s recent book  Direction of War , he highlights that if war is an instrument of policy, strategy is the tool that enables us to understand war and gives us the best chance of managing and …

In an earlier  blog post for this forum , I discussed some of the government’s latest policy, its relationship to the Joint Archipelagic Manoeuvre concept and a shopping list of new and enhanced  means . These  means  included: New long-range rocket system New deployable short-range, ground-based air defence weapons New medium-range, ground-based air defence weapons New deployable, land-based anti-ship missiles. Tempted as I was to open  Janes  and look at hardware, there are robust procedures in the …

Introduction The ‘greater uncertainty’ in Australia’s strategic environment identified in the  2016 Defence White Paper  is now perhaps  deterioration , with increasing concerns that we rely on an alliance partner that may become  decreasingly willing or able to underwrite our defence . Hugh White has questioned the ADF’s  capacity to defend Australia , Concurrently, it is the Chief of Army’s assessment that history’s continuous shift in the character of future warfare is now  accelerating .  As the …