Dr Robbin Laird, Building Combat Mass: An Air Force Perspective, 2 October 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) The panel on combat mass was chaired by the former Air Commander Australia, AIRMSHL (Retd) Darren Goldie who provided an overview to the discussion. AIRMSHL (Retd) Darren Goldie introduced the panel with a clear overview regarding the challenge. This is how introduced the subject: The definition of combat mass is widely agreed as overwhelming combat power at the deci

Dr Robbin Laird, The Force in Being to Protect the Nation: Its More than the ADF’s Role, 1 October 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) We focused in the September 26, 2024 Sir Richard Williams seminar on ways for the force in being to be augmented in the short to midterm. But for the effective defence of Australia as a nation, one needs to expand the notion from a force in being to a force in being embedded in the national enterprise which participates beyond the remit of th

Dr Robbin Laird, Building Combat Mass: A Navy Perspective, 30 September 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) When you are a medium-sized force and not adding a lot of manned platforms in the next five years, how to you enhance combat mass? Or put another way how does the ADF as a ready force create mass effects with what they must fight with tonight and what they can plus up with in the short to mid-term? This was the focus of the panel chaired by AIRMSHL (Retd) Darren Goldie

Dr Robbin Laird, The Challenge for Defence Readiness: The Impact of Politics, 29 September 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) If one is focused on how the force in being can be a more ready force, one will generally look in vain in the political class for a keen focus on this challenge. And this is true for all of the AUKUS partners. It is not difficult to see why. A ready force needs supplies, munition stockpiles, reliable energy supplies, food stocks, logistics capability

Dr Robbin Laird, The Perspective of Australia’s AUKUS Partners on Shaping the Way Ahead for Airpower , 28 September 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) General Kevin Schneider, Commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces and AVM Mark Flewin, Air Officer Commanding 1 Group Royal Air Force both spoke at the September 26, 2024 Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar. The first presentation was by a video recording and the second was an in person presentation after the long flight from

Dr Robbin Laird, The September 26, 2024 Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar: An Initial Take, 27 September 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) The most recent seminar of The Sir Richard Williams Foundation was entitled: “Enhancing and Accelerating the Integrated Force: An Operational Perspective.” This seminar focused on how the force in being or the ready force was focused on improving its capability, its survivability and lethality for the fight tonight. For such a foc

Dr Robbin Laird Final Report: Enhancing and Accelerating the Integrated Force: An Operational Perspective - will be released in October More articles from Dr Laird are posted in Event Proceedings Synopsis and Program Conference speakers Welcoming Remarks VADM (Rtd) Tim Barrett AO, CSC, Sir Richard Williams Foundation Introduction and MC WGCDR Sally Knox, Sir Richard Williams Foundation Politics and Defence in the AUKUS countries - the agenda in the 2020s Peter Jennings

Dr Robbin Laird, Shaping a Way Ahead for Airpower in a Contested Region: The Perspective of Air Vice Marshal Glen Braz, 7 October 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) Air Vice Marshal Braz participated in the latest Sir Richard Williams Foundation seminar on September 26, 2024. His presentation and engagement were as part of a panel with Rear Admiral Christopher Smith, Commander Australian Fleet which focused on how to generate mass for the ready force. I had chance to meet wi

The Foundation’s Chair, Air Marshal (Retd) Geoff Brown AO, who is also the former Chief of Air Force, was quoted in the public media this...

Dr Robbin Laird Final Report: The Multi-Domain Requirements of an Australian Maritime Strategy 11 April 2024 More articles from Dr Laird are posted in Event Proceedings Synopsis and Program Conference speakers AIRMSHL Geoff Brown AO (Retd) Chair, Sir Richard Williams Foundation Host SQNLDR Sally Knox Sir Richard Williams Foundation MC Crises, what crisis? Policy perspectives and strategic coherence Peter Jennings AO, PSM, Director Strategic Analysis Australia The Defence

Dr Robbin Laird, The Strategic Shift in Australian Defence Requires a Shift in the Approach for Australian Defence Industry, 16 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) To achieve the kind of resilience and sustainability which Australia requires in dealing with the threat environment, Australia needs to build more focused defence industrial capability. What kind of capability is most needed in the evolving strategic environment? To understand the nature of the shift required

Dr Robbin Laird, A Focused Force: Autonomous Systems and a Distributed ISR Enterprise, 14 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) As the...

Dr Robbin Laird, Australia’s New Defence Strategy: Reshaping the ADF into a Focused Force, 9 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) The Australian government has laid out its strategy of change for the ADF in last year’s Defence Strategic Review (DSR) and in this year’s defence investment plan and national defence strategy. But frankly, deep cuts in current capability to play for the future force leaves many of us unsure of where the Australian government thinks it is going

Dr Robbin Laird, Layered ISR and a Focused Force, 9 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) If you want to shape an effective focused force with modest capability, for certain you need to operate as a kill web. I focused on the concept of the kill web in a co-authored book with my colleague Ed Timperlake and then most recently in my book on the coming of maritime autonomous systems. This is how we discussed the kill web : In 2016, we discussed the kill web approach with Rea

Dr Robbin Laird, Shaping C2 for the ADF and Coalition Forces: The Perspective of Air Vice Marshal Mike Kitcher, 7 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) When I was in Australia in September of last year, I had a chance to talk to the then Deputy Chief Joint Operations (DCJOPS), Air Vice-Marshal Mike Kitcher. In that interview, he discussed how the refocus on direct defence in Australia affected the Joint Operations Command. Kitcher noted in that interview: “The focus in thi

Dr Robbin Laird, RPAs, Autonomous Systems and How to Strengthen the ADF in the Next 3-5 Years, 6 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) The Australian government is shifting resources from the Air Force and the Army and from the surface fleet to pay for a new fleet of eight SSNs with the first coming only in several years. How then to ensure that the ADF is effective in the next five years as money and manpower is moved to what seems to be an SSN-enabled Navy with the other

Dr Robbin Laird, Cognitive and Information War and the “Gray Zone”, 5 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) An aspect of modern Western strategic thinking has been a focus on gray zone conflict. This is an area I have always found confusing. In a world which I would characterize as one of the rise of multi-polar authoritarian movements and states, their constant conflict efforts have indeed been in the gray zone punctuated with direct periods of violence against the West a

Dr Robbin Laird, How to Enhance Space’s Contribution to Australian Multi-Domain Operations in Support of Maritime Operations, 4 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) Australia has more demands than it has budget. It has more challenges than it has forces. So how to maximize the effect of what capabilities Australia has going forward? How to maximize the economy of force to deal with persistent and expanding threats? Part of the answer is to focus on enhanced leveraging of

Dr Robbin Laird, How to Build a Focused Force for Australia’s Extant Strategic Environment?, 2 May 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) Although the Australian Defence Strategic Review and the recent Surface Fleet Review indicated that the threat environment was deteriorating in the here and now, the major investments are being made for a force that will not arrive for a decade. How then to enhance the ADF in the next three to five years? Or in the words of Keirin Joyce: “The

Dr Robbin Laird, Logistics and Sustainment for an Evolving Defence of Australia Strategy, 30 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) There is no more daunting challenge facing a credible Australian defence strategy in it is region than that of logistics and sustainment. Australia is so dependent on imports of supplies, and overseas production of military equipment that the nation is very exposed to its logistics and sustainment shortfalls. And when looks at the wider world