Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Paper #12 By Dr Robbin Laird The contemporary Indo-Pacific security environment presents a fundamental challenge to traditional alliance structures: how can middle powers maintain strategic autonomy while deepening military cooperation with major power partners? This dilemma is particularly acute for Australia, which faces the competing imperatives of economic integration with China, security dependence on the United

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Paper #11 By Dr Robbin Laird The recent Williams Foundation seminar on military readiness did not really highlight or provide detailed perspectives on how uncrewed systems could empower the fight tonight force and help drive the ongoing operational re-design process which is becoming a key part of military readiness. Australia finds itself positioned to leverage this technological moment. With sophisticated defence s

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Interview Paper #10 By Dr Robbin Laird Australia faces one of the world’s most daunting maritime security challenges. With 37,000 kilometers of coastline and the third-largest exclusive economic zone globally, the Australian Maritime Border Command must protect an area so vast that traditional approaches simply cannot scale effectively. To put this in perspective, Australia’s maritime responsibility covers more ocean

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Paper #9 By Dr Robbin Laird In an era of shifting geopolitical dynamics and evolving security challenges, traditional approaches to defence logistics and industrial cooperation are proving fundamentally inadequate. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has starkly illustrated that modern warfare demands not just superior firepower, but the ability to sustain, adapt, and surge capabilities at unprecedented speed

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #8 By Dr Robbin Laird The ghost of inadequate preparation haunts modern military planning. Mrs. Marion Chapman’s 1949 letter to the Department of Air, lamenting her son’s death in the Pacific War, carries a haunting accusation that resonates today: “he, with others, was so poorly equipped, directed and eventually abandoned.” This stark reminder opened the panel discussion on building resilienc

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #7 By Dr Robbin Laird In an era of growing strategic uncertainty, Australia faces a fundamental question about its defence posture: how does a geographically isolated continent-nation sustain military operations when global supply chains fail? Air Vice Marshal (Retired) Robert Denney, now Country Executive for Northrop Grumman Australia, delivered a compelling answer in a recent presentation t

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #6 By Dr Robbin Laird Air Commodore Alun Roberts, Head Air to Air Missiles Royal Air Force, outlined in a virtual presentation to the seminar, Britain’s ambitious defence transformation in response to evolving global security challenges. The United Kingdom’s recently published Strategic Defence Review (SDR) 2025 represents nothing sa paradigm shift in British defence thinking. He argued that i

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #5 By Dr Robbin Laird In an era of unprecedented global uncertainty, Australia faces a critical question: Can the nation mobilize its industrial base quickly enough to meet emerging security challenges? According to Matt Jones (seen above in the featured photo), Head of Future Business Defence Delivery at BAE Systems Australia, the answer lies not in waiting for crisis to justify action, but i

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #4 By Dr Robbin Laird From left: AVM (Retd) Zed Roberton DSC, AM, Professor Justin Bronk, GPCAPT Steven Thornton, LTGEN Susan Coyle AM, CSC, DSM The nature of warfare is fundamentally unchanged — it remains a contest of political will between adversaries. However, the character of how wars are fought has transformed dramatically. In an era where conflicts can be decided before the first missil

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #3 By Dr Robbin Laird The nature of military transformation has fundamentally changed. Where once armed forces could afford to develop new platforms over decades and then figure out how to use them, today’s security environment demands a completely different approach. This shift represents perhaps the most significant change in military thinking since the advent of combined arms warfare itself

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #2 By Dr Robbin Laird For decades, integrated air and missile defence has been synonymous with ballistic missile defence, Patriots and Aegis systems standing guard against incoming rockets. But Professor Justin Bronk of the Royal United Service Institute delivered a stark wake-up call at the seminar: the modern threat spectrum demands a fundamental rethink of air defence, and the timeline for

Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance - Conference Proceeding s #1 By Dr Robbin Laird On September 18, 2025, the Sir Richard Williams Foundation held its 2nd seminar for the year which was entitled: “ Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance .” I will highlight the presentations at the conference in a series of articles over the next few weeks. I will conclude the series with an article providing my perceptions of what were the major answe

Dr Robbin Laird, The Imperative for Cost Effectiveness in Multidomain Operations : Final Report, 22 May 2025 Link to ebook (Defense.info)

Dr Robbin Laird, Shaping a Way Ahead for Autonomous Defence Capabilities for the ADF by Denial, 17 June 2025 Link to article...

Dr Robbin Laird, Strategic Transformation for a New Era: Reworking the Australian’s Army’s Role in Australian Defence, 16 June 2025 Link...

Dr Robbin Laird, Australia and the Way Ahead with Autonomous Systems, 15 June 2025 Link to article (Defense.info) During my visit to...

Dr Robbin Laird, Reshaping Combined Arms Operations: Lessons Learned from Drone Warfare Operations, 14 June 2025 Link to article...

Dr Robbin Laird, The Autonomous Revolution: How Australia Could Transform Defense Through Maritime Robotics, 13 June 2025 Link to article...

Dr Robbin Laird, The Maritime Revolution: How Autonomous Vessels Are Reshaping Naval Strategy, 12 June 2025 Link to article...

Dr Robbin Laird, Training for Modern Airpower Operations: How to Address the Challenges, 9 June 2025 Link to article (Defense.info) On...