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

Dr Robbin Laird, Multi-Domain Operations in Australia’s Maritime Strategy: The Army, Navy, and Air Force Orient Their Efforts, 29 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) The focus of the April 11., 2024 Williams Foundation seminar was on multi-domain operations in support of a maritime strategy. But each service focuses primarily on a particular domain and sees its role in terms of a maritime strategy from their perspective. What then really does multi-domain mean from the

Dr Robbin Laird, Aligning Airpower Capabilities with Australia’s Maritime Strategy, 26 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) At the April 11, 2024 Williams Foundation seminar, the former head of the Air Warfare Center and now Director General for Air Combat Capability, Air Commodore Ross Bender, addressed the way ahead for the RAAF in dovetailing with the new strategic focus of the Australian government. Bender noted that the RAAF although closely partnered with other al

Dr Robbin Laird, Conceptualizing Australia’s Maritime Strategy and Shaping a Government Approach, 24 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) I followed up with Jennifer Parker on April 19, 2024 with regard to her presentation on how to conceptualize Australian maritime strategic interests and strategy. We focused on how she conceptualized the strategy and the needed approach as much wider than a focus on ADF capabilities. We discussed the need for reforming the Australian

Dr Robbin Laird, Shaping Space for Autonomous Systems in the Operating Force: The Case of the Loyal Wingman, 23 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) In the re-direction of Australian defence underway by the Labor government, a key challenge will be to make progress in the three to five years ahead for the ADF and the nation in meeting the growing global threats, while investments are being made to shape a different force down the road. In such an effort, shaping a space

Dr Robbin Laird, Air Power in Australia’s Maritime Strategy, 21 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) This was the title of the presentation by Chris McInnes, a noted Australian airpower and defence analyst, to the April 11, 2024 Williams Foundation Seminar. He provided an overview of how airpower made unique contributions to Australian defence by providing rapid strike options throughout the Australian areas of interest. McInnes highlighted air power’s ability to provid

Dr Robbin Laird, Mike Pezzullo on the Strategic Shift For Australian Defence, 21 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) Australia as do all liberal democratic societies face significant limits on what they spend or what they can mobilize for defence. But with the changing strategic situation in which power is diffused globally, multi-polar authoritarian movements and states are aggressively pursuing their diversified agenda, and the global “rules-based order” is not only

Dr Robbin Laird, Shaping a Way Ahead for Australian Maritime Strategy, 20 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info) The Williams Foundation Seminar held on April 11, 2024 focused on how multi-domain operations could enable Australia to more effectively execute an effective Australian maritime strategy. But such a discussion pre-supposes that Australia has a maritime strategy and a fairly clear sense of what its maritime interests are which need to be protected. The governmen

It is with great sadness that we advise the passing of Errol (Mac) McCormack Air Marshal AO (Retd). Errol was born in Bundaberg in 1941...

Dr Robbin Laird, Multi-Domain Operations in the Maritime Domain: The Significance of Digital Interoperability, 16 April 2024 Link to article (Defense.info The April 11, 2024 Williams Foundation Seminar focused on multi-domain operations in support of maritime security and defence. The progress made as the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been building a fifth generation enabled force needs to be continued in the years ahead. What is at stake is building an effective kill w

Dr Robbin Laird, What does a 21st century defence strategy look like for Australia in a multi-polar authoritarian world?, 16 April 2024...

Dr Robbin Laird, The Future is Now for the ADF: Shaping Space for Maritime Autonomous Systems, 15 April 2024 Link to article...

Dr Robbin Laird, Working the Sustainability Piece in Australian Defence: The Case of Munitions, 10 April 2024 Link to article...

Dr Robbin Laird, Multi-Domain Requirements of an Australian Maritime Strategy: The April 2024 Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar, 13 April 2024 Link to article ( Defense.info The first of two seminars of the Sir Richard Williams Foundation in 2024 was held on 11 April 2024 at the National Gallery of Australia. The seminar was entitled, “The Multi-Domain Requirements of an Australian Maritime Strategy”, and the aim of the seminar was identified as follows: “To examine th