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2(AS) Division PME Program 'The Defence Strategic Review and National Defence Strategy: Implications and Outcomes for the Australian Army' Crafting a National Defence Strategy is an immensely challenging task. At its core, it requires a theory of victory – or a theory of success – so that practitioners can deliver it. [1] Within military education institutions and elsewhere, the development of strategy is often reduced to a formula that allocates available resources against efforts. This is wrong-headed …

  In February 2022, Russian forces streamed into Ukraine under what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a ‘special military operation’ to achieve objectives including ‘denazification, demilitarisation and its neutral status’. The early weeks of the conflict found Russia struggling to achieve its objectives despite many military experts’ predictions that Ukraine would fall quickly. Over two years later, the conflict continues, and uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) have made significant contributions to the …

A Comparative Analysis of Amphibious Operations in the Pacific and European Theatres of the Second World War    Within Occasional Paper Number 23 , author Richard Bushby compares WW2 Allied amphibious operations in the European and Mediterranean theatres with those conducted in the central Pacific theatre. The article further examines the relationship between amphibious techniques and broader concepts of strategy and operational art. … Occasional Paper 23 release - From The …

MSMEs crank up Australia-India defence Partnership   Over the past decade, the Australia-India defence partnership has undergone a significant transformation, evolving into a comprehensive strategic partnership in response to mutual security concerns, notably those arising from China's assertive regional posture. This partnership has been further strengthened by regular Summit meetings, the institution of the Australia-India Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue, and strategic military agreements. These …

Lessons Learnt from the War in Ukraine Introduction Many may not realise that the origin of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, dates back almost a century, while modern UAV technology has been rapidly developing in civilian and military contexts over the past four decades. Drones represent the intersection of two important trends in military technology – the precise nature of weapons and the rise of robotics which, when combined, are flown remotely at no risk to a pilot and capable …

2(AS) Division PME Program ‘Information Warfare: recent history and irregular futures’ Information Warfare: recent history and irregular futures. What the Australian Army can learn from Russia and Violent Extremists During February and March of 2014, Ukraine’s Crimea region was annexed by Russian ‘Little Green Men’. [1] The internet and news media were awash with images and reports of these Russian speaking soldiers who carried Russian arms and equipment driven in Russian plated vehicles. Russian state …

2(AS) Division PME Program   Thoughts on ‘Generalship’ and how bold staffs can support their General to understand the nature of conflict. Generalship is an intellectual endeavour . It requires incumbents to understand the nature of war, as well as the character of the conflict in which they are taking part. However, developing and sustaining such an understanding is not straightforward. This is particularly evident when circumstances conspire to impose friction on the mundane and the routine of a …

The Australian government’s intent to increase the defence workforce to 100,000 personnel by 2040 affects the Army’s future force structure, capability, and training. [1] Yet, before the implications of this target can be properly considered, the issue of recruitment must be addressed. The changing threat within the Indo-Pacific, and the lack of 10-year warning time, means that recruitment for the future is more important than ever. From the impacts of COVID-19 to ongoing natural disasters, there has been …

  The  2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) and  Defence Strategic Review (DSR) describe an Indo-Pacific region increasingly seeing the effects of US-China great power competition in a landscape where modern warfare is rapidly changing. Traditional kinetic warfare is increasingly being replaced by or complemented with hybrid tactics, including the use of  cyberattack ,  foreign interference ,  influence on public opinion, and  cognitive warfare . Climate change and rapidly advancing technologies such as AI …

Enabling Integral Health in the Littoral Environment   Our home is girt by sea, a phrase sung from every primary school hall and sports stadium from 19 April 1984. This phrase and its implications, has been missing in Army doctrine for quite some time. The Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) period of our history slanted our tactical thinking. Our training often details a threat assessment of Area of Operations (AO) dominance, assuming and providing assuredness through multi-domain superiority. The …