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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
By Robbin Laird As Admiral Nimitz confronted the last century’s challenges in the Pacific, he concluded a core lesson for this century’s Pacific warriors: “Having confronted the Imperial Japanese Navy’s skill, energy, persistence, and courage, Nimitz identified the key to victory: ‘training, TRAINING and M-O-R-E T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G.’ as quoted in Neptunes’s…
On October 24, 2019, the Williams Foundation will host its next seminar on building an integrated fifth generation force. This seminar will be held in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from 0800 through 1530. Since 2013 the Sir Richard Williams Foundation seminars have focused on building an integrated…
By Robbin Laird As I have argued earlier that the rebuild of the Australian Navy is not just a whole of government effort but a whole of society effort, if it is to succeed. The Australian Chief of the Navy, Vice Admiral Mike Noonan, emphasized in his presentation in the…
