The advent of widely available Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Meta AI, represents the most significant advance in AI to date. This new technology presents new risks too. Well-known examples include bias, hallucination, theft of intellectual property (IP), and lack of transparency. [1] These dangers certainly raise questions over the suitability of using LLMs in the military.  To date, security experts have mainly focused on the risks of this new AI technology through the lens of …

The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine   by David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts Harper Collins, London, 2023, 444 pp ISBN 9780008567972 Reviewed By:  Adriaan van Staden   Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine is an expansive analysis of the evolution of global warfare since the end of World War Two. It delves into how conflicts, both large and small, have been transformed due to political, technological, and societal shifts, moving from state-on-state battles to asymmetric and hybrid …

Assessing Civilian Employer/Manager Support for Employees’ Part-time Military Service Over the past decade, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of the Australian Army Reserves for Defence capability and greater utilisation of individual reservists and reserve units for major conflict deployments and humanitarian operations. However, as foreshadowed in the Australian Defence Strategic Review recommendation for “[a] comprehensive strategic review of the ADF Reserves…” there are …

On 8 August 2018, the Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Rick Burr, released the Army’s Futures Statement for an Army in Motion - Accelerated Warfare. [1]  This paper articulates four imperatives for change, based on four alternate views, enabling Army’s consideration and implementation of Accelerated Warfare.  These alternate views are examples of the diversity of ideas available to Army as we consider Accelerated Warfare’s place in our dynamic futures. The four imperatives for change and four alternate …

The recently released Chief of Army’s statement,  Army in Motion , is a critically important document for the Army’s future, even if it appears neither remarkable nor awe-inspiring at a first glance. In its mundanity, however, it is exactly what Army needs to do. As a statement of intent for the entire force to embrace,  Army in Motion  is highly relevant for the future of land power in Australia. I for one am all in. As General Angus Campbell has observed, Australia is facing a  more disruptive future , …

Introduction On May 8, 1864, Ulysses S Grant’s Union soldiers clashed with the Confederate troops of Robert E Lee at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on the road to Richmond. For the next two weeks the two sides fought it out as Union soldiers braved the fire swept ground that separated the two armies to close with the Rebels. Thousands fell in the attempt. A few weeks later, the process repeated itself at the even bloodier Battle of Cold Harbor. Today’s commanders face a challenge similar to that …

Volumes are devoted to armament; pages to inspiration. George S Patton [1] The Australian Army’s replacement or enhancement of its equipment and the introduction into service of new technologies is a continuous process that consumes the labour of hundreds of staff across several organisations. The starting point for this modernisation effort is the Army’s Land Capability Division whose personnel guide nine Army programs through various gates on behalf of the Chief of Army, the end-point being the …

Land Forces 2018 was great. I just wanted to state my position clearly and up front. I also must disclose that I was a part – admittedly a very small part - of the organisation that put the event together, but my use of the word ‘great’ represents no bias or exaggeration on my part. Being great, however, doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been better, nor that we shouldn’t strive for better for 2020. My focus in the first of these two posts was on reinventing Land Forces as a ‘festival’ in order to engage new …

Land Forces 2018 was a success... but what's next? Dr Albert Palazzo asks what the future of the exposition might look like.   I have attended many Land Forces expositions in my time with Army. The one that just finished was, in my opinion, the best I have witnessed. [1]  The Adelaide Convention Centre pulsed with energy as soldiers, defence civilians and trade-folk discussed the wares on display. The Chief of Army Land Forces Seminar – held in conjunction with the Land Forces 2018 exposition (or Land …

The armour wheels in a perfectly executed turn worthy of a mounted squadron as mortar bombs and 155 shells blast a nearby hill and a Tiger races in for the kill. It’s Chong Ju, the Australian Army’s annual blast fest when Puckapunyal Range reverberates to the sound of explosions. Indeed, it is a blast, literally to the ears and figuratively to one’s pride as the nation’s land force demonstrates what it was designed to do to a military, media and defence stakeholder audience. Every year the exercise is …