Five Ideas to Strengthen Civil-Military Coordination Before a Crisis Recently, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) headed off to again to support another humanitarian response, this time in Vanuatu . The ADF has a long history of supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) operations overseas and providing defence assistance to the civil community (DACC ) in Australia. The 2023 Defence Strategic Review reiterated that ‘climate change is now a national security issue’ and this reality will …

How Victory Turned into Defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq By Ben Barry Osprey , Oxford: UK, 2020, 528pp Paperback ISBN: 9781472831040 Hardback ISBN: 9781472831019 eBook (ePub) ISBN: 9781472831026 eBook (PDF) ISBN: 9781472831002 Reviewed by Dr. Al Palazzo When reviewing a book, I have a definite preference. I like to review books that I enjoyed reading so that I can share my pleasure with others — which explains why I found it so frustrating to review Ben Barry’s Blood, Metal and Dust: How Victory Turned into …

The biggest event in Australia for the Defence industry, Land Forces 2022 was held in October 2022 in Brisbane.  The expo featured  810 exhibitors and had a strong multinational flavour, including 159 delegates from 30 nations.  Over three days, there were a total of 20,000 attendees at the event.  For Army members, Land Forces represented not only an excellent opportunity to see what future platforms may become available, but also to get a better understanding of emerging technologies that industry is …

Securing a Point of Entry to Facilitate Littoral Manoeuvre in the Near Region The recent release of the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) has brought littoral operations – and all that these entail – back into the limelight. The Australian Army has received explicit guidance that it ‘must be transformed and optimised for littoral manoeuvre operations by sea, land and air from Australia, with enhanced long range fires.’ [1] This new specialised focus will be a challenge for Army. Although it possesses a strong …

A Wargame Experiment Arguably the biggest challenge for law-and-ethics-abiding military forces engaged in urban warfare is their current reliance on standoff firepower to reduce their own casualties while allowing progress against adversaries who are concealed and protected. As is the case in operations conducted on rural terrain, this tactic is essential to overcome defensive urban advantages . However, it is less palatable or even counterproductive in cities because of the associated civilian suffering . …

The Australian Army Research Centre is interested in the ‘ Transformation of Land Power ’ as a topic that encompasses a range of domestic and global tasks for Army. This article reflects on how transformative the Australian Army’s modern application of land power is, when viewed against the lessons of one of our deployments to the Middle East. I recently became aware of Dr Albert Palazzo’s book, which provided an analysis of the Australian Army’s role in the 2003 Iraq War. The book was eventually titled, …

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. Occasional Paper 14: Land Warfare, an introduction … Land Warfare, an …

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. Website: https://www.acmc.gov.au   Documents for download: ACMC Call for Proposals (PDF 593.53 KB) ACMS Call for Proposals (DOCX 137.79 KB) …

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. This Occasional Paper 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 …

Introduction The effectiveness of land power is underpinned by its supply chain. Without an efficient supply chain, Army’s ability to maintain effectiveness in established locations, and when projected forward, is at risk. Therefore, it is imperative that the Army looks to enhance its ability to deal with situations where the supply chain is compromised, either due to geographical dislocation, replacement part shortages, or backlog. The adoption of Additive Manufacturing (AM) as part of the supply chain …