Domestic security operations cannot be separated from the conduct of operations offshore. The increased reach of enemies allows them to attack targets directly in the homeland ……and involves not only protection of militarily important targets but also actions to deny the enemy the ability to strike civilian targets. [1] 23 March 2022 marked a step change in military thinking. State-on-state conflict was back in Europe.  Advanced, peer competitors slugged it out in the forests and cities of Ukraine with …

I met a representative of our future land power just last month. She served me at the checkout at my local Woolworths. Glancing at her name tag, I asked her what she had planned for the weekend. She proceeded to tell me, with immense energy, about the steps she was taking to ensure that she would be joining the Australian Army at the end of the year when she finished high school. She described in vibrant detail, with no further prompt from me, how she was going to crew Army’s next-generation armoured …

Abstract: This submission proposes modifying the Honeywell Aerospace AGT1500 gas turbine in the M1A2 Abrams MBT, and other reciprocating piston diesel engines used by the ADF, to allow them to burn Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as fuel in addition to diesel (dual fuel).  The purpose is to secure a homogenous liquid fuel source in times of constrained supply chain circumstance, such as prolonged armed conflict. Additional dividends could be extracted by utilising the waste cold energy created during the …

  John P. Kotter , the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School, argues that successful transformation requires time to succeed, usually measured in years. Kotter emphasises that successfully transformation includes eight distinct stages, worked through in sequence. [i] The success of any given stage of transformation depends on the work done in previous stages. A critical mistake, or skipping a step, in any of the stages, can have a devastating impact. Kotter …

2022 AARC Short Thoughts Competition Australia’s strategic environment is complex, increasingly contested, and rapidly evolving. Major power competition, militarisation, disruptive technological change and new threats pose challenges to Australia’s national security. These developments test Army’s capacity to generate highly trained, disciplined and fit tactical units; preserve its capacity to operate within the joint force; while simultaneously delivering Army forces in support of the national interest …

As the Australian Army contemplates the transformation of land power, one area that is worthy of focused effort is the development of a deep battle concept. [1] Currently, Army lacks a unified concept for how it intends to employ its incoming deep-ranging platforms to achieve advantage in depth. To remedy this, Army must expand its concept of land power to include methods of credibly competing in areas of the battlespace beyond the influence of its close combat formations. To create a deep battle concept, …

Close Air Support with Unmanned Combat Aerial Systems “ Strategy sometimes matters a lot. ” John Mearsheimer Introduction The 2020 Defence Strategic Update (DSU), the most recent articulation of Australian military strategy, describes the objectives to shape, deter and respond as the centrepiece of the Australian defence strategy. [1]   The strategic situation has worsened since the DSU’s release with war in Ukraine, and increasing Chinese belligerence, increasing the requirement for a credible ability to …

Reimagining land warfare through technology Robotic and Autonomous Systems represent the potential future of land warfare where militaries can effectively strike their opponents while removing humans from the conflict zone. Looking back at his experiences leading up to the Second World War, in The Gathering Storm Winston Churchill quipped that, “the War Office is always preparing for the last war.” Churchill was chiding the tendency of military planners not to appreciate the potential of new technologies …

Army is transitioning to a more mechanised, mobile and protected force structure. Amid billion-dollar materiel investment, the 2016 Ryan Review, [1] a subsequent professional military education (PME) strategy [2] and its accompanying CA Directive 22/17 [3] determined that the most pressing transformation that needs to occur in Australian land power is intellectual. Since then, a range of meaningful initiatives and contributions have made PME more accessible and prevalent in the Army training landscape. One …

An incomplete understanding of the nature of the conflict in Ukraine still plagues Australian strategic discourse. In what has been termed, the ‘ first TikTok war ,’ Ukraine’s strategy of resistance indicates an intent to democratise warfare. In this context, the purpose of this Post is to explore the strategy of resistance, Ukraine’s employment of this strategy, and the issues that emerge as lessons for national security professionals. Using the ASPI Strategist as an indicator of the breadth of the …