A year ago, the Chief of Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, delivered a speech to ASPI’s War in 2025 conference that brought the terminology of political warfare to the fore. In reflection upon this speech, we focus this week upon the concept of Political Warfare in the context of today’s social disruption, which might be predicted to continue to manifest in coming months. To frame this conversation, we offer George Kennan’s famous telegram of 1946, which heralded the commencement of the Cold War with …

Innovation The US PACFLEET published video of a successful Solid State Laser test (destroying a UAV) from on-board the USS Portland in the Pacific Ocean, the first such use of a high-energy class solid-state laser ( the US Navy has operated laser weapons previously ). The weapon could be employed against UAV or small armed watercraft, or it could defend against attacks from land based missile systems, in which conventional defensive fires via intercept would usually be overwhelmed. In 2015, the program …

COVID19: Regional Geopolitical consequences Analysis is turning to the geopolitical shocks and changes that will follow the pandemic. The ASPI Strategist urges Australia to build on Defence relationships with Japan and South Korea to counter this expected great power tension. Foreign Policy concludes general war is unlikely, but warns stronger right-wing political movements could fuel protectionism and hyper-nationalism, inhibiting multilateral cohesion. On a hopeful note, New America offers a new …

In the future land force, close working relations with industry and the Australian business community will be more important than ever. Comparing the way military and business organisations work is a useful task for understanding organisational culture, and looking at how each organisation approaches leadership is a good place to start. I became interested in this comparison as I observed a recent leadership seminar with a class of mid-career business professionals. This was a group of energetic and clever …

This blog is part of a series on Quantum Technology and future land warfare, put out by the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Coordination Office (RICO), a part of Future Land Warfare Branch tasked with coordination and de-confliction for Army's Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) efforts in accordance with emerging disruptive technology. The trouble with quantum technology is that it seems impenetrable, improbable and impractical. In this post, I accordingly …

The future aiming mark for geospatial intelligence capabilities within Defence should be the creation of a Spatial Digital Twin: a single, dynamic dataset that represents the physical world in sufficient resolution to act as the reference point for all systems requiring mission data. As a phrase du jour there are currently many competing definitions of Digital Twin, but the most relevant to this concept being "a dynamic virtual representation of a physical object or system across its lifecycle, using …

This blog is part two of a two part series discussing the economic impacts on Defence in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.   Part One of this two-part series focussed on cost implications of a large currency depreciation for the military. It showed how these can increase the cost of maintaining capability at an increasing rate, and force difficult choices relating to allocation of scarce resources.   Part Two will now focus on the most important economic implication of the Covid-19 crisis for the …

Emerging Threats and Opportunities (ETOs) is a regular blog series on the Land Power Forum that collects together blogs, podcasts and articles of interest with the goal of creating discussion on the topic of land power. US interoperability There is a general consensus that the ‘ coronavirus pandemic may soon lead to big changes in the U.S. military ’. An argument to redirect military funding into domestic health resources has been met with the warning that pre-COVID19 security challenges persist. Analysts …

This blog is part one of a two part series discussing the economic impacts on Defence in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has already upended everyday life and work around the world. Following the lead of major stock markets overseas, the Australian stock market fell precipitously in less than two months. Additionally, in less than a month, the Australian dollar fell to its lowest level against the US dollar in the last 17 years. This exceeds anything …

Navith currently works as a Consultant at Noetic Group. He recently graduated from the Australian National University with a Master of Strategic Studies. As part of his postgraduate study, he interned at the Australian Army Research Centre (AARC) submitting a research paper on precision strike capabilities. Prior to moving to Canberra, Navith completed a Bachelor of Law and Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney. He has a deep interest in future concepts and emerging technology. … Navith …