Reflecting on recently introduced ADF-wide policy on respite, author Phillip Hoglin identifies areas for further improvement in Occasional Paper 21, Respite Periods in the ADF . He outlines factors that contribute to enduring challenges to the achievement of consistent respite policy, with reference to both Australian and overseas experience. Hoglin identifies a spectrum of applied and academic approaches to address these issues and, based on his analysis, provides several workable options for …

2(AS) Division PME Program Small Uncrewed Air Systems, The Threats They Pose and How To Counter Them SPEAKER :  Dr Carl Rhodes   In the 2024 National Defence Strategy  (NDS) and Integrated Investment Program  (IIP), un-crewed or robotic and autonomous systems are mentioned a total of 57 times. [1] Clearly this is an area of significant interest and concern for the Australian Government. But why are these systems without humans useful and what need do they fill? Additionally, if our adversaries are using …

The Chief of Army opens this edition of the Australian Army Journal recognising Army's intellectual capital as a driver for innovation and change. This Journal covers diverse topics - from the relevance of the Basic Fitness Assessment in preparing soldiers for operations, analysis of the Australian Defence Force Gap year Program, to a history of staff development in the Australian Army. Foreword We stand at another inflection point in our Army’s history. In April this year, our government delivered clear …

  While militaries publicly declared an interest in robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), no documented wide-scale deployments of weapon systems exist. Occasional Paper 20, Understanding how to scale and accelerate the adoption of RAS , co-branded with RAND identifies a promising range of RAS technologies with military implications and evaluates the potential barriers to their widespread adoption. … Occasional Paper 20 release - Understanding how to scale and accelerate the adoption of …

It has become somewhat par for the course, in any discussion of professional reading in a military context, to quote United States Marine Corps General James Mattis (retired). Mattis commands much respect, both within the US military and in the Australian Army. He is often viewed as the modern-day soldier-scholar par excellence . His books frequently appear on Professional Military Education (PME) Reading Lists, and his quotes on the importance on military literacy are often thrown about. This is because …

Land Power’s Contribution   Australia stands at a pivotal moment in its military strategic policy with the National Defence Strategy 2024 (NDS) adopting deterrence by denial and calling for the evolution of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) into a truly integrated force. The aim is to maximise the ADF’s deterrence, denial, and response options in the Indo-Pacific region. However, the NDS lacks specificity on crucial aspects, such as the who, where, when, why, and how the ADF will harness military power …

2(AS) Division PME Program 'The Defence Strategic Review and National Defence Strategy: Implications and Outcomes for the Australian Army'   Magic weapons, political influence and resistance The  National Defence Strategy (NDS) and Integrated Investment Program (IIP) recognises strategic urgency and Australia’s challenging strategic circumstances. [i] Those circumstances, described in the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) [ii] and the NDS itself explicitly call out Russia, China, North Korea and Iran as …

  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 …

The Australian Army Journal is the Australian Army’s premier professional publication and a consistent presence informing the debate about the Army since the late 1940s. The topics of the journal have been ever-changing as authors reflect upon the issues affecting the Army of the day. The journal has given everyone from junior leaders to Chiefs of Army an opportunity to share ideas, discuss issues and do the most important thing that a leader can do: offer thoughts to prepare those who will inevitably …