Decreasing Reliance on Fossil Fuels to Increase Defence Capability
Benjamin Cole
Australian Defence Force
This article began as a response to Daniel Cook’s recent article on ‘Turning the Tap Off – Stopping the Flow of Pointless Jobs in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)’ (Cook, 2023); as such, it will address some of the points raised in that article within the context a broader trend towards what I term ‘military populism’.
For several decades, the relationship between Australia and India seemed limited to Commonwealth, cricket and curry.
Deterrence existed long before nuclear weapons were invented and has been a feature of relations between antagonistic tribes and states since such relationships first existed. The concept of deterrence, convincing an adversary not to carry out an undesirable action by threatening them with harm, is widely understood and applied in military and nonmilitary contexts.
In Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat (Higham & Harris, 2016), historians Robin Higham and Stephen Harris assemble a team of experts to investigate examples of failure and defeat in the application of air power. Overall, Why Air Forces Fail is an interesting and important book because it analyses the reasons why air forces have suffered defeat and failure. It draws some important lessons in this regard, and it provides an excellent resource for those studying air power.
Understanding the complexities of our modern information-based environment is now fundamental to the success in warfighting and navigating the fog of war. Conversely, the use of traditional information paradigms can lead to unwitting co-option of the adversaries’ plan or world view. We must consider that concepts of reality, truth, and what is right inherently does not completely align amongst different actors and groups. With this understanding, we can build resilience and anti-fragility in our decision-making and analysis.
Matthew ThorntonAustralian Defence ForceWhen a drone from an adversary attacks an office in Amberley, how many of our industry partners will show u
In January 2020, I was privileged to fill the role of Senior ADF Officer (SADFO) and Air Base Executive Officer (ABXO) of the RAAF Base Wagga, as the national bushfire emergency unfolded across the NSW southwest slopes.
