This is the fifth blog in a series benchmarking the French Army – the armée de Terre. To date, this series has ‘benchmarked’ the armée de Terre , its culture , its structure and its people capability . This post will analyse the French Army’s approach to training. In doing so, it will highlight points of convergence relevant to the increasingly important Army/armée de Terre partnership. The author currently serves as Army’s Liaison Officer to the armée de Terre in France. Many are familiar with the proverb …

Part 1 of this series made the case that humanities and social sciences (HASS) and management disciplines are indispensable for the long-term effectiveness of military planning. They greatly complement STEM capabilities and help make military plans more relevant and robust. This second article in the series explores the pervasive antipathy towards these disciplines in the Australian public discourse, and the implications of this for the Australian military. As was explained in Part 1 of this series , STEM …

During the latter months of 2019 and the new year of 2020, Australia experienced catastrophic and widespread bushfires. As the situation worsened, the federal government unexpectedly called out the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Reserves to bolster an already significant deployment of ADF regular forces to contribute to a massive interagency and volunteer community response. This deployment was the largest ever peacetime domestic ADF operation in response to a natural disaster. As the lessons of Operation …

This is the sixth blog in a series on benchmarking the French Army – the armée de Terre. To date, this series has ‘benchmarked’ the armée de Terre , its culture , its structure , its people capability  and its approach to training . This post will analyse the French Army’s modernisation program. In doing so, it will highlight points relevant to the increasingly important Army/armée de Terre partnership. The author currently serves as Army’s Liaison Officer to the armée de Terre in France. An …

This edition of ETOs seeks to promote readings the AARC team recommend for assisting Army to adapting to future threats and opportunities. We deliberately span a range of topics and aim to provide enough time to order books of interest prior to the Christmas holidays. Happy reading! Resilience   Philip H. Gordon, Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East , Oct 2020. This book is a clinical review of United States’ efforts to affect regime change in the Middle East since …

The Australian military should strive for a balanced skills strategy, which augments STEM capabilities with humanities, social sciences, and management disciplines. Any military is only as good as its people, platforms and partnerships – its veritable ‘Strategic Trinity’. However, the effects of these are not uniform, with people exerting a disproportionately significant impact on its long-term effectiveness. The calibre of the people – and their overall skills, training and experience – not only shapes …

At last, the Army’s watercraft replacement project is gaining traction. Land 8710 Army Littoral Manoeuvre promises to replace the Army’s archaic LCM-8 and LARC-5 small boats. In addition, the replacement of the decommissioned LCH Balikpapan Class amphibious vessels is receiving serious consideration. To say that this progress is overdue is to minimise the ancientness of these craft — they entered service earlier than the eldest of serving soldiers. There was a time when the Army’s establishment contained …

Dr Hunt discussing disinformation in the COVID-19 pandemic. … Disinformation in the COVID-19 pandemic …

This is the fourth blog in a series on benchmarking the French Army – the armée de Terre. To date, this series has ‘benchmarked’  the armée de Terre , its culture and its structure . This post will analyse the French Army’s people capability. In doing so, it will highlight points of convergence relevant to the increasingly important Army/armée de Terre partnership. The author currently serves as Army’s Liaison Officer to the armée de Terre in France. Like most armies, including our own, the French Army …

Resilience ETOs had previously reported upon the acceleration of digital technology adoption in Australia as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, reports similar accelerated change in South-East Asia, with an additional 40 million internet users in 2020, bringing the region to approximately 70% population adoption. Major Power Competition The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has settled into a Russian-brokered ceasefire , allowing examination of the lessons of the …