A Historical and Strategic Perspective Speech to the Chief of Army Symposium 2023, Perth Convention Centre, 30 August 2023 [Editorial note: This speech has been edited and condensed for clarity.] To help focus our topic today, let us first consider my favourite map. If you haven’t seen it before, it is the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) planning map centred on Darwin, but spun 45 degrees (Figure 1). It gives you a sense of Australia hanging off Asia, and what Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, called …

Speech given at the Synergia Conclave, Bangalore, India, 18 November 2023 [Editorial note: This speech has been edited and condensed for clarity.] I am going to discuss the ways advanced computing might change warfare, and the ways it might not. My aim is to recommend where advanced computing applications are likely to get the biggest return on investment. In order to avoid the trap of prediction, I intend to look at the past—particularly the recent past—to give us some sense of how best to focus the …

Australia’s strategic environment is deteriorating. The scale, scope, concurrency and intensity of conceived future operational tasks will require some level of land force mobilisation. However, the allocation of resources to, across and between tasks will vary as the strategic context and direction changes. As recognised in the 2023 Defence Strategic Review   (DSR), this level of uncertainty combined with a reduction in strategic warning time [1] requires Defence to increase preparedness, thereby …

A 100-year-old bullet-riddled steel landing craft recovered from Gallipoli is one of the first items seen by visitors to the Australian War Memorial, furnishing silent testimony to the Australian Army’s lengthy amphibious tradition. This heritage includes several division- and corps-level amphibious and littoral operations across the South-West Pacific during the Second World War. However, despite some important capability acquisitions, the recent experience of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has led to …

Introduction The results of humanity’s addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are now being felt. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases has increased alarmingly since the Second World War, and as a consequence the earth is warming, and is doing so at an accelerating rate. Humanity’s modification of the atmosphere began in the 18 th century with the onset of industrialisation and the burning of fossil fuels. To date, international efforts …

The present expedition was formed in contemplation of a long term of service by land and sea alike, and was furnished with ships and soldiers so as to be ready for either as required. Thucydides, on the Sicilian expedition of 415 BCE [1] Introduction When the Allied forces landed on the island of Sicily in the early hours of 10 July 1943, it was the largest amphibious operation of the war to date. Operation Husky saw US, British and Canadian amphibious forces, preceded by airborne forces, land on the …

Tempo in Army’s Contribution to Australian Defence Strategy Introduction Over the last decade, time has become central to the concerns of the Western strategic community. Many policymakers worry that time is no longer on their side in the face of relative decline and the threat from powerful revisionist states. Others highlight the pace of technological and strategic change which, according to one former Chairman of the United States (US) Joint Chiefs of Staff, has ‘accelerated the speed of war, making …

Exploring the Value of Deployed Military Chaplains in Australia’s Region Introduction Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021, the Australian Government authorised a non-combatant evacuation operation to ensure Australians and other approved foreign nationals could safely leave Afghanistan. Between 18 and 26 August, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flew 32 flights to and from Hamid Karzai International Airport, transporting a total of 4168 people. This included 2,984 Afghan visa …

THE conversion of the Army Training Memorandum to the “Australian Army Journal” represents another step in the re-organization of Australia’s post war Army. The aims of the Australian Army Journal are:— To provide a medium through which to convey to the officers of the Army and the Cadet Corps the latest trends in military thought and developments at home and abroad. To provide information designed to assist officers with their personal studies and training problems. To stimulate thought and encourage the …

THE re-introduction of Citizen Military Force training constitutes another land mark in the history of the Australian Army. In the present state of international affairs few can doubt the wisdom of investing in an insurance policy in the shape of an efficient defence force. An impartial survey of the trend of world affairs is not calculated to strengthen the hope that Australia may not be called upon again to defend herself against aggression. Under the conditions of war as they exist today, and are likely …