Land Forces 2018 was great. I just wanted to state my position clearly and up front. I also must disclose that I was a part – admittedly a very small part - of the organisation that put the event together, but my use of the word ‘great’ represents no bias or exaggeration on my part. Being great, however, doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been better, nor that we shouldn’t strive for better for 2020. My focus in the first of these two posts was on reinventing Land Forces as a ‘festival’ in order to engage new …

Land Forces 2018 was a success... but what's next? Dr Albert Palazzo asks what the future of the exposition might look like.   I have attended many Land Forces expositions in my time with Army. The one that just finished was, in my opinion, the best I have witnessed. [1]  The Adelaide Convention Centre pulsed with energy as soldiers, defence civilians and trade-folk discussed the wares on display. The Chief of Army Land Forces Seminar – held in conjunction with the Land Forces 2018 exposition (or Land …

The armour wheels in a perfectly executed turn worthy of a mounted squadron as mortar bombs and 155 shells blast a nearby hill and a Tiger races in for the kill. It’s Chong Ju, the Australian Army’s annual blast fest when Puckapunyal Range reverberates to the sound of explosions. Indeed, it is a blast, literally to the ears and figuratively to one’s pride as the nation’s land force demonstrates what it was designed to do to a military, media and defence stakeholder audience. Every year the exercise is …

The Worst of Both Worlds - On the Nature and Character of Urban Littoral Combat …

Volume 15, Number 2, Spring Edition …

With respect to their cities, later on, at an era of increased facilities of navigation and a greater supply of capital, we find the shores becoming the site of walled cities, and the isthmuses being occupied for the purposes of commerce and defence against a neighbour. [i] Thus wrote the Athenian, Thucydides, some two thousand years ago. Describing the geography, the demography and military status quo before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, he noted the particular situation of urbanisation along …

Matt Brown is a journalist from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation who has wide experience in covering conflicts especially in the Middle East. In this presentation he relates some of his experiences in his journalistic role of bringing  news out of these conflict zones and how social media is changing how reporting is being undertaken. … Airstrikes and Twitter - Matt Brown - …

Matt Brown, Deputy Editor, International News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Between July 2012 and July 2018 Matt was based in Jerusalem and Beirut as Middle East Correspondent for the ABC. His work focused on the war on the Islamic State group and conflict and instability in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt. … Matt …

Lieutenant Colonel Dayton McCarthy  is currently the Staff Officer Grade 1 Special Projects in the G5 Cell, Headquarters 2nd (Australian) Division. He served in the Australian Regular Army from 2005 to 2013 in a number of regimental, training and staff appointments. Transferring to the Army Reserves in 2014, he was the Commanding Officer of the 9th Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment from 2021 to 2022. A defence analyst in his civilian career, LTCOL McCarthy is the author of several books and numerous …

Dr. Albert Palazzo is an Adjunct Professor at University of New South Wales –Canberra in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He was formerly the long-serving Director of War Studies for the Australian Army. He has written more than twenty books and monographs on the art of war, including The Australian Army: A History of its Organisation, 1901–2001, The Australian Army and the War in Iraq, The Battle of Crete, and From Moltke to Bin Laden: The Relevance of Doctrine in the Contemporary Military …