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Royal Australian Air Force Aeronautical Engineering Officer, Flight Lieutenant Sarah Welsh, briefs her team at No 37 Squadron, RAAF Base Richmond, NSW.

Air/Space

01 Oct 2026

Foundation

The power of language: strengthening reporting through consistent communication

Consistency of language is not simply a writing skill; it is a leadership responsibility.

Adam Tracey-Patte

The RAAF’s Fundamental Business: An Evaluation of RAAF Air Power Education

Publication

Air Power Fellow Series

01 Jun 1995

Expert

The RAAF’s Fundamental Business: An Evaluation of RAAF Air Power Education

Considerable resources have so far been expended on the RAAF air power education program but few, if any, performance measures are in place to assess whether those resources are being effectively and efficiently employed.

Drawing Lessons for Australia From Sweden and Canada's Approach to National Defence

Joyce MedranoAustralian Defence Force

Introduction

Book Review: Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat

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.

Mentoring The Next Generation Of Strategic Thinkers

Education is highly valued in the Air Force, with the acquisition of highly specialised skills and expertise being an integral component of one's career progression. Training comes in various forms, including mandatory, specialist, on-the-job, and professional military education. In addition to these forms of training, members of the Air Force have access to opportunities for scholarship, where they can apply for graduate programs at Masters and PhD level through civilian universities. These programs afford individuals the chance to focus on a particular "problem" for Defence, dedicating an extended period of time to research and scholarship.

The Weaponisation of Toys and Implications for the Air Force

The 'poor man's air force' is a term for employing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hobbyist drones or uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) to strategic level military effect, and that effect cannot be understated (Waters, 2018; Nadeau, 2022; Shift, 2023). The ability for terror organisations to coordinate multiple layers of effects, including using COTS drones, to destroy Command and Control (C2) nodes in Israel causes alarm. Couple this with the use of COTS drones for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, strike and battle-damage assessment missions, and the threat posed by what are essentially toys is alarmingly real.

Ryan Hodson