Call for a New Approach to Shaping an Australian Defense and Security Strategy: The Perspective of Rear Admiral (Retired) Kevin Scarce

10/17/2019
At the 45th Essington Lewis Memorial Lecture delivered this week in Adelaide, Rear Admiral (Retired) Kevin Scarce provided his perspective of the need for Australia to shape an “integrated and wholistic approach” to the threats facing Australia. And in so doing argued that without a broader public engagement this would…

Re-setting Sustainment for the Royal Australian Navy Fleet (Updated)

10/17/2019
Recently, I attended the Chief of the Royal Australian Navy’s Seapower conference being held in Sydney from October 8th through the 10th, 2019. For five years, I have been attending the Williams Foundation Seminars and writing the reports on the transformation of the RAAF and its impact on shaping a…

Looking Back at the COIN-Oriented US Military Transformation

10/15/2019
By Robbin Laird In my lifetime, the U.S. military has gone through three major phases of development. The first was the shaping of the force in the 1980s to deal with the Soviet threat to Europe and encompassed air-land battle. Hardwired networking was introduced and working ways to integrate forces…

Operation Rapid Forge: Highlighting the Challenge To Shape a Sustainment Capability to Enable an Integrated Distributed Force.

10/14/2019
By Robbin Laird To deal with the challenge posed by the 21st century authoritarian powers, the United States military and its allies are rebuilding their combat approach. The strategic trajectory is to shape a force which can prevail in an area of interest with a coordinated or integrated dispersed or…

The Evolution of the Indo-Pacific Over the Next Five Years: Implications for Australian Defense

10/13/2019
By Robbin Laird Recently, I attended the Chief of the Royal Australian Navy’s Seapower conference being held in Sydney from October 8th through the 10th, 2019. The conference provided insights into two major questions: What is the development trajectory of the Royal Australian Navy over the decade ahead? And what…

The Australian Approach to Developing and Deploying Remotes Systems in the Maritime Environment: The Perspective of Cmdr. Paul Hornsby

10/12/2019
By Robbin Laird Recently, I attended the Chief of the Royal Australian Navy’s Seapower conference being held in Sydney from October 8th through the 10th, 2019. One of the sessions which I attended was a presentation by Cmdr. Paul Hornsby, Royal Australian Navy lead on autonomous warfare systems. The presentation…

Shaping an Enhanced Japanese-Australian Military Alliance: The First Joint Air Exercise

10/12/2019
With Exercise Bushido Guardian, the Royal Australian Air Force has conducted its first joint air exercise with the Japanese. The exercise is part of the expanded working relationship in defense agreed upon in 2017. The opening of the exercise was highlighted in an article by Corporal Vevornica O'Hara published on…