This article comprises a reflective piece on the re-raising of 7RAR in 2006-07. BRIG Shane Gabriel was the battalion’s first CO following its re-raising, and subsequently led elements of it into Afghanistan in 2008-09 as CO of Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force – One. While the Australian Army Journal is and will remain a scholarly, peer reviewed publication, throughout its long history it has been pleased to publish such reminiscences on significant moments in Army’s history. In light of Army’s …

Space Assets, Space Data, and Space Workforce on the Ground … Mobilising Space for Army …

Overseas Plan 401 and the Interwar Australian Military Forces (1919–1939) One thing alone is of import: the point of preparation reached at the actual outbreak of war.—Ferdinand Foch [1] … Expeditionary Force Mobilisation Planning in an Age of Austerity …

Australian Beach Groups, 1943-1945 The process of getting men and vehicles ashore during an assault landing and maintaining them at their full fighting efficiency is complicated by the very nature of the operation … it is no exaggeration to say that once a beach head has been secured, the success of the operation will depend very largely on the early establishment and smooth running of an efficient beach organisation. [i] Introduction and Context By 1943, the American and Australian forces had gained the …

The Australian Army’s Past, Present and Future Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is. [1] TE Lawrence, August 1917 Introduction [2] The public release of the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) in April 2023 and National Defence Strategy (NDS) in …

Land Power’s Contribution to the Integrated Force Introduction Australia is on the precipice of the most significant change in military strategic policy since the end of the Cold War. The 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) recommended the Australian Defence Force (ADF) ‘maximise the deterrence, denial, and response options for the Government’ by evolving into an ‘integrated force’ that harnesses effects across all domains’. [i] The 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) advances this direction by …

How the Australian Army Can Harness the Firepower Advantages of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Introduction Since 2011, the world has undergone a Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) which has heralded worldwide advances in artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and robotic technologies. [1] These disruptive technologies are gradually altering the character of warfare towards what AI entrepreneur Amir Husain describes as ‘hyper war’, where battles are waged entirely at machine speed. [2] The question of …

The Social Identity Foundations of Military Leadership Group affiliation and identity are key themes in Anthony King’s rich and extensive analysis of military cohesion and performance The Combat Soldier . [1] King argues that understanding operational performance depends crucially on understanding the nature of ‘collectives’. He shows how longstanding practices in military doctrine and training aim to enhance group cohesion by shaping affiliation and identity, so that the execution of orders by soldiers …

The Defence Strategic Review (DSR) was a call for action, which bluntly stated that we have seen ‘the return of major power strategic competition, the intensity of which should be seen as the defining feature of our region and time’. [1] Yet the DSR offers little insight into the nature of the competition that is being advanced by regimes such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and others. Terms such as ‘grey zone’, ‘irregular warfare’ and ‘proxy warfare’ simply do not appear in the DSR, even though …

An Interview with Lieutenant General (Retired) Francis Hickling …