Grounded Curiosity provides a space for military members to share ideas and to learn from each other. We are particularly focused on helping junior leaders publish their thoughts.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (goodreads.com) On the 8th August 1914, the three masted barquentine Endurance set sail from Plymouth as part of […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Within the three combat brigades there is a bias towards combat corps officers and SNCO’s when filling key appointments. This can be […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Technology has become ubiquitous within the modern world, in particular with communication systems. There are few people in Australia today who do […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Ones We Let Down: Toxic Leadership Culture and Gender Integration in the Canadian Forces explores the ten years following the decision of the […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Red Badge of Courage written by Stephen Crane in 1895 is a fictional novel that explores the philosophical mindset of a […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Marching in to my first unit as a Lieutenant (LT) and Platoon Commander (PLCOMD), one of the first tasks I was told […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes We talk about continuous learning and how it is important to be a professional soldier, sailor oraviator, regardless of trade. We have […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes As part of the Ukraine conflict we have been watching an increased use of civil space capability. At the Inaugural Space Summit […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes I know that look. I see myself in her eyes. I know that woman intimately. It’s a portrait of me – a portrait of […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes An Executive Summary of Ghost Fleet by P.W. Singer and August Cole It is not the strongest of the species that survives, […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Sport or life can throw unexpected and overwhelming challenges in our path. How we respond displays the strength of our character. I […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes On Operations by BA Friedman is a book with a singular goal, to prove that the operational level of war is a […]
Reading Time: 8 minutes Artillery Reading List for the intellectual component of fighting power and to learn lessons from others’ experiences.
Reading Time: 5 minutes I am currently serving with one of the most diverse organisations in the world – the United Nations. My role as a […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the US Army, it is a common refrain to say we are always busy training to fight the last war. To […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes Founded in 1941 by Charles Bean, the latest custodian of the Australian War Memorial (AWM) is Matthew Anderson, PSM who was announced in […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words In 2018, I learned the power of authenticity. I […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words An SGI at RMC-D, nearing four decades on this […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words To be right, or nice? I have asked myself […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words I remember once being told by my old corporal […]
Reading Time: 10 minutes Director of the Australian War Memorial (AWM) since April 2020, Matthew Anderson, PSM had a distinguished career with the Department of Foreign […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words Would it help? We have all experienced our fair […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words Priming is a phenomenon where introduction to a certain […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes ‘What the Americans lacked, or lost somewhere along the way, was imagination… It was not a failure of intelligence, but of imagination.’ […]
Reading Time: 23 minutes As a nation – and as an important regional leader in the global community – Australia is experiencing significant changes to our […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words The Greatest Weapon – Mom I used positional/personal power […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words Most days we pounded the hot pavement seemingly only […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bite sized leadership lessons, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words Fatigue will break metal. Fatigue is defined as weakness caused […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” – Albert Einstein […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes It initially seemed like another routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea. Captain Sarah Hunt was the Commodore of […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes The rise of Result Oriented Work Environments, or ROWEs, across the globe has sparked a shift in organisational management and culture. Conceptualised […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes “…in Burma our Armies are advancing on the wings of the Allied Air Forces.” – Air Chief Marshal Keith Park Introduction The […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes Recently, I had the pleasure of seeing a LinkedIn post from an American Army colleague, on a photo of a group of […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes “Be grounded by what we are good at – exceptional leadership and passing on these leadership skills to Army’s next generation.” – […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes During a promotion course at Canungra, I recall an instructor posing a simple question to the audience: “How many of you have […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes The Falklands War was “a close-run thing”, noted Admiral Sir John ‘Sandy’ Woodward, the British commander for Operation Corporate (the British name for the operation […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes As a member of the Royal Australian Air Force, I am often asked what I do for a living and many people […]
Reading Time: 38 minutes Australia’s region is in the ‘midst of the most consequential strategic realignment since World War II and trends, including military modernisation, technological […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Part Time Army is growing – now with a combined force of over 15,000 – and on a steady upward trend […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is Part II of an interview with David Kilcullen. Find Part I here. David Kilcullen is Professor of International and Political Studies […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes An overused- but often cited- definition of leadership is “the art of influencing people to willingly achieve the team or organisational goal”. […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes David Kilcullen is Professor of International and Political Studies at UNSW Canberra, Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, and CEO of […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes In 2020, I deployed as the gender advisor for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), as part of Australia’s ongoing commitment to the global […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes Much has been written about women in leadership. There are countless books and articles on leadership written by women specifically for women. […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes What a difference a year makes – or does it? As the world struggles to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes Firstly, I apologise that this article might not be the best writing I’ve produced. I’m currently sitting here at work shivering while […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes I hugged them tight, so tight that my four year old complained she couldn’t breathe. But I didn’t want to let go, […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes “Realistically, simply saying ‘you should commission’, whilst humbling, is largely ignorant of the fact that many enlisted personnel actually love (or really […]
Reading Time: 8 minutes While in some ways the context in which the land force functions has evolved, the demands have not[1]. The persistent features of […]
Reading Time: 23 minutes “where more than twenty interpretations take to the field, the addition of one more cannot be deemed an impertinence” – Isiah Berlin Introduction […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The pros and cons of cadet hierarchies have been debated at length. The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) removed cadet hierarchies in […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Drawn from the Centre for Australian Army Leadership reading list and The Busy Platoon Commander’s Reading List, this book reminds me of John Carter. […]
Reading Time: 12 minutes Spotlight Her 2021 Propel Her is shining a spotlight on silent achievers who contribute in inspirational ways to the Defence of Australia […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Mission command is a tricky concept that has been confusing western militaries for decades. At its best, it enables rapid decisive action […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes The recent Chief of Army Symposium 2021, held at the Brisbane Convention Centre from April 19-20, highlighted regional engagement, technology and the […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes 19 April 2021 saw a world first. A helicopter took flight for 40 seconds. A short hover before turning and landing. It’s […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Editor’s Note: This is Grounded Curiosity’s 2nd most read article of all time. One of the most useful phrases to emerge from […]
Reading Time: 20 minutes Failure at Fromelles, 19-20 July 1916: Examining failures against the nine tactical considerations for the attack Fail: c. 1200, ‘be unsuccessful in […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes In January the Australian Defence College published a paper by Dr Peter Layton under the title “Fighting Artificial Intelligence Battles: Operational Concepts […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes As a junior commander, I am a recent graduate of training designed to formally instruct me in command, leadership and management. In […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Space has gained prominence in recent years as an independent warfighting domain. This has resulted in renewed calls for nations to commit […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes 2020 saw increased operational demands for some members of the part time Army. Members were deployed on Operation BUSHFIRE ASSIST, with little notice, […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Data is the future. Few tropes receive more uncritical acceptance. Pick any rubric of military assessment– take PMESII (political, military, economic, social, […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes “The last of human freedoms—the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.” Victor Frankl So, what if you […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes I recently returned from the 16-day CIMIC Planner and Operator Course (CPOC) which targets those looking to post into Army’s Civil-Military Cooperation […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes What if you could build a stronger team by building a shared picture? What if you could increase enthusiasm by reorienting someone’s […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes The divide between officers and non-commissioned officers (NCO) is sometimes described as the difference between ‘book learning’ and practical experience. While many […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes This article is part of the Propel Her – Defence Women’s Leadership Series. Follow the series and join the conversation via #PropelHerAus. A […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes “They provide inspiration, purpose, motivation, direction, and discipline to the troops they lead” US Army Command Sergeant Major, John Wayne Troxell – […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes At the time the Australian Defence Force (ADF) announced it was dissolving individual service values and uniting the Army, Navy and Air […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes As a maths-teacher-turned-infantry-officer, there are some parts of military planning that I’ve particularly enjoyed. For example, I’ve always been able to quickly […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes In his speech for the launch of the 2020 Defence Strategic Update, Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed to the audience: “We must […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes You may have heard during Officer training to quickly build a relationship with your Sergeant (SGT), take in their perspective and respect […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes In September, I celebrated one year since my first article was published. When I posted to Twitter about this fact, the always […]
Reading Time: < 1 minute Benjamin has an idea The Royal Australian Navy’s recent rollout of the ‘Personal Wi-Fi Access’ (PWA) system on several Australian warships is accompanied […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes This article is part of the Propel Her – Defence Women’s Leadership Series. The main message that I took away from my phone […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes This article is part of the Propel Her – Defence Women’s Leadership Series. Airpowerment: Athletes of air and space power; mentally, physically and […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes This article is part of the Propel Her – Defence Women’s Leadership Series. The Authentic Leader: Know yourself, build your team and ask […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes Combined Arms Training Centre Combat Commander’s Reading List This series addresses battle command, decision making and combat culture, in order to distil […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes I must admit to being taken aback by the appearance of the ‘Australian Army Leadership Levels’ (‘the Levels’) as published in Army […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes As a junior commander, I have made the mistake of stacking my presentations and back briefs with detail for my higher commanders. […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Actions on are designed to equip the recipients of orders to quickly react to a series of situations that may be encountered […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is the fourth article in the Propel Her – Defence Women’s Leadership Series by Lyndsay Freeman and Shamsa Lea. The term ‘networking’ will invariably turn some […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes In the same way that humans historically praise animals and vehicles that have served in combat, soldiers form bonds with their robots. […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes At times, the role of a Staff Officer seems to be the furthest you can get from the field. Posted to a […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US Department of Defence announced on April 1st the commencement of enhanced counter-narcotics operations […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes This is the seventh and final article of a series on the Twelve Urban Challenges. You can access the series here. Previous articles have introduced […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Fiction is an important element of every professional military education reading list. However, returning to the same handful of texts can make […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Robotic weapon systems with autonomy in their critical functions of selecting and attacking targets raise novel legal, ethical and operational questions for […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes This is the sixth article of a series on the Twelve Urban Challenges. You can access the series here. In previous articles, […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Most ADF members don’t realise the value of mentoring until late in their careers – with the common reflection being ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner!?’ Mentoring can change your career and life trajectory. It can open up networks and opportunities beyond your immediate reach, and can give you the tools and confidence to develop and promote yourself.
Reading Time: 9 minutes Considerations for Data Workforce 2028 This article details the author’s experience in a first-of-its-kind attempt for an Army Reservist in an Operations […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes This is the fifth article of a series on the Twelve Urban Challenges. You can access the series here. The very idea […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes July 30 saw the launch of the Mars 2020 mission, the latest to the Red Planet. The mission aims to explore the […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes We (Paul and Nick) previously considered the Warfighting Health Effect in 2040 supported by Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) in a deployed environment. […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Private Richard Alexander “Dick” Henderson MM was forever immortalised in the now famous painting by Horace Moore, which shows a stretcher bearer […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is the fourth article of a series on the Twelve Urban Challenges. You can access the series here. The previous and […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes So, if you have read Part 1 of this blog, you will know that emotions are transmitted from one person to another […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Women in Future Operations Holds Its First Working Group What do you see when you conceptualise the future of unconventional warfare? What […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes This is the third article of a series on the Twelve Urban Challenges. You can access the series here. The previous blog […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes “Magic’s just science that we don’t yet understand” – Arthur C. Clarke How many times have you walked into the morning’s briefing […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes I was recently selected for a sub-unit command appointment and as with all significant milestones, this selection made me pause and look […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes This is the second article of a series on the Twelve Urban Challenges. You can access the series here. Urban conflict presents […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The current social and economic crisis has seen record applications for enlistment into the Australian Defence Force (ADF) by skilled workers who […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘Do not confuse Command with Leadership; command is a responsibility to the organisation and leadership is looking after your people so you […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes This is the first article of a series on the Twelve Urban Challenges. You can access the series here. Armed conflict is […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes This article is a junior leader’s framework for mission command and complements Understanding Mission Command. Mission Command is a commander’s assessment of […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Being an outward facing Liaison Officer (LO) is high tempo, reactive and enables the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to achieve an appreciable […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every conflict in human history has been accompanied by a wave of non-combatant suffering. The proliferation of militarised autonomous systems in this […]
Reading Time: 11 minutes When faced with a crisis, people and organizations often turn toward the familiar. The US military is no exception. The US military uses familiar […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes In his book A History of Warfare, John Keegan wrote of the relationship between warfare and society: “both worlds change over time, and the warrior […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes If the 2004 ADF Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Roadmap foresaw the requirement for a tiered UAS capability to be realised by 2020, […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Last year, Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Alan Finkel, warned that emerging technologies are “poised to disrupt almost every fabric of Australian society”. […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Australian Army’s newly adopted Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE) has significantly broadened the complexity of the threat picture away from the […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes In December 1918, General Sir Douglas Haig wrote that tanks “are incapable of effective independent action. They do not in themselves possess the power […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes American society has entered an era of “magical realism” with real-world consequences. It is an era tainted by decay, diminishment, and dilution […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Humans have always sought to enhance themselves. The history of humanity is a story of that pursuit for greater improvement and ultimately, […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes How officer training prepared me for Operation COVID-19 Assist. If you’d told a newly commissioned Lieutenant (LT) what they could expect as […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s a new frontier of science that is having far reaching implications for the world. Gene editing, more commonly known by its new […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Drugs have a long history in war. In fact, drugs and war may have always existed together in some form, leading Wes […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes When former acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly announced he was relieving Captain Brett Crozier from command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Modly noted […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Counterterrorism (CT) will increasingly be a vector for access and influence in our region. In May of 2017, ISIS aligned militants seized […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes On March 30, 2020, the media pounced on a leaked, controversial letter of a U.S. Navy Captain commanding the USS Theodore Roosevelt, […]
Reading Time: < 1 minute BLUF: Click >here< or on the image above to access the PME Prezi. Grounded Curiosity is pleased to bring you the Professional […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes What Can we Learn from Kids Shows? We’ve previously published an article by Tom Bittner on Sci-Fi TV as a lazy, but meaningful […]
Reading Time: 12 minutes Policy at the ‘speed of relevance,’ considered broadly in the context of domestic and international politics, provides a sketch of the vast challenges we face. Time is of the essence. In a future epoch, historians will consider this period a transitional era. Will it be an era in which informational and technological advancements outpaced the intellectual capacity of politicians to understand and harness the revolution that has been wrought?
Reading Time: 5 minutes The mystique surrounding the current buzzwords of information advantage and manoeuvre is unnecessary and counter-productive, it is simply the cognitive degradation of an opponent’s ability to act. Degrading the enemy’s cognitive ability is not the end, rather it is merely an enabler for military action – part of the plan, not the plan itself. Time flies, but it flies higher and faster for the confused and blindfolded.
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is the third and final article in a three-part series from the Australian Defence Force Liaison Officer (ADFLO) to the New […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes ‘If [people] cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.’ – George Orwell Professional military education (PME) underpins the study […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes A ‘notice to move’, or as it is known by its military acronym ‘NTM’, serves as a useful planning tool to manage expectations for both force elements and commanders. But in dynamic, unpredictable circumstances, a notice to move can sometimes be the source of confusion and friction between various levels of command. This needn’t be so.
Reading Time: 7 minutes Mission command is a philosophy for command and a system for conducting operations that is widely understood within the Australian Army to […]
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Chief of Army Scholarship Program reinforces Army’s intellectual foundation as an Army in Motion. Applications are due NLT 31 March 2020.
Reading Time: 5 minutes Why is the U.S. Army so bad at delivering new weapon systems? Is this merely a function of excessive ambition, budgetary friction, or changes to the operational environment? The likely culprit is a system designed to minimize risk to users, risk to mission, risk to budget, and risk to industry.
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is the second article in a three-part series from the Australian Defence Force Liaison Officer (ADFLO) to the New South Wales Rural […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes From late 2019 through early 2020, I had the opportunity to serve as an Australian Defence Force Liaison Officer (ADFLO) to the […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes On 27 November 2019, several Australian Army soldiers gathered in Melbourne the day after a Defence Innovation Hub Phase , Unmanned Aerial […]
Reading Time: 17 minutes 20 0145 APR 2030NATO Training CentreUndisclosed Location To: Jackson Randolf, Col. (Ret.)From: Everyn Randolf, 2nd Lt.Subject: Evergreen How the hell did you do […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Military history is often seen as the go-to resource for military professionals to learn about and understand their trade. It is full […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes Why can’t they see the enemy? As an Observer Trainer shadowing the lead section, I could see the enemy up ahead. As […]
Reading Time: 19 minutes This narrative is designed to explore the difference that robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomy and augmented reality spatial computing could achieve with technologies […]
Reading Time: 8 minutes This narrative is designed to explore the difference that robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomy and augmented reality spatial computing could achieve with technologies […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes Western militaries are struggling to comprehend how to effectively manage the rapidly changing character of contemporary warfare because the multi-domain model used […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes I was fortunate to be able to visit Edinburgh Castle recently and as I was walking around learning about the history of […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes A beluga whale approached a Norwegian fishing boat in late April of this year wearing a harness with ‘Equipment of St Petersburg’ […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes About nine months ago, I knew nothing about online publishing. Now I’m sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly of my […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes What follows is Part 3 in the fictitious future warfare serial ‘Virtual Command’ from Australia’s newest professional military education platform The Strategic […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes What follows is Part 2 in the fictitious future warfare serial ‘Virtual Command’ from Australia’s newest professional military education platform The Strategic […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes It is hard to be optimistic about the ongoing U.S. led peace talks with the Taliban. After nearly 18 years of conflict, the […]
Reading Time: < 1 minute A new version of the PME Prezi has been released – PME Prezi 2.0 – go to https://groundedcuriosity.com/pme-prezi-2-0/
Reading Time: 4 minutes Sir Michael Howard, the British military historian, once said that although it was impossible to know the future character of war, the trick was not to be far from the mark when it came, misrepresenting changes in character as changes in nature and misunderstanding the available evidence will act to almost guarantee that the trick is missed.
Reading Time: 5 minutes “The nature of war is changing, so you don’t have to have two tanks shooting at each other to call it war. […]
Reading Time: 8 minutes History’s first duel between ironclad warships during the American Civil War ushered in the beginning of a new era of naval warfare In […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes Cis-lunar space and militarisation of the Moon is the impending next chapter in an evolving astrostrategic contest for dominance of space beyond geostationary […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes In launching last week’s inaugural Army Leadership Seminar (31 Jul – 01 Aug 19), LTGEN Rick Burr, the Chief of Army, explained […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s important, but is it accessible? This month was all about the Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO), as the professional military education (PME) […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes ‘This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.’ – Alan Turing […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes “There is a lack of consciousness of the importance of professional education in many members of the Army, and consequently it has […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes All methodologies fail at prediction but they also can all produce relevant future scenarios that will keep your mind adaptive and your organization better prepared for any surprising future that might arise. It is okay to get the future wrong. Just do it a hundred different ways.
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘Our archers are so numerous, said the envoy, that the flight of their arrows darkens the Sun. So much the better, replied King Leonidas, […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes A visit to Integrated Personnel Protection Group, DST We see a lot of sketches, concepts and science-fiction about tomorrow’s soldier – but […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Speed is currency in the digital age, and success is determined by winning the contested decision cycle in less time and space […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Since our last instalment of My Curious Month, the team at GC have been enamoured with the final season of Game of Thrones. […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes This series is based on lessons learned from leading innovation in the New Zealand Army and New Zealand Defence Force. Up, up, […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes This is the first of a new monthly serial titled ‘My Curious Month’, where we will explore common themes that pop up across the PME network, summarise them and signpost resources if you’d like to explore the topic further.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Innovation needs to be a way of doing business, not a reaction to effective enemy fire
Reading Time: 3 minutes History must be studied in breadth, depth and arguably most importantly in a proper context, not least because conflict is essentially between […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes With all this attention on innovation how do we stop innovation becoming another cheap buzz word? Or has it already succumbed to its tragic fate?
Reading Time: 12 minutes Ambiguity—‘the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness’.[1] Numerous modern warfare journals refer to the ‘hybrid’ nature of various […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes As the Australian Army reconceptualises the way in which it can ensure dominance on the battlefield, it must be acknowledged that, noting […]
Reading Time: 8 minutes Covered in sweat, and emerging from his Type 97 Medium Tank, Lieutenant Watanabe of the Imperial Japanese Army must have been surprised. […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Effective short learning loops support high readiness contingency forces, the development of new capabilities, the generation of forces for known operations and […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training. —Archilochus, Greek soldier and […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes When it comes to meritocracy and diversity, the symbolic is real. And that means that simple actions that reduce bias, such as […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes Let me give you my bottom-line up front: simulation is not about technology – it’s about culture. Major General Craig Orme, AM, […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes For the last two years I have written ‘Letters from HAMEL’ for Grounded Curiosity. The idea was always to take my own […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. Sun Tzu, The Art […]
Reading Time: 8 minutes ‘Don’t shoot till you see the glint of their electro-optic sensors‘ Armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) designers employ a multilayered systems approach to […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes This article is the second in a two part series that seeks to generate discussion and debate on military experimentation. Part 2, […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes This article is the first in a two part series that seeks to generate discussion and debate on military experimentation. Part 1, […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes The sweeping effects of the fourth industrial revolution are readily evident in the exponential increase of emergent and disruptive technologies becoming commercially […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes ‘Most modern armed forces equip their personnel with the latest body armour, the best protected vehicles, and the most sophisticated counter explosive […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes The future of Australian Army Aviation lies in its ability to successfully integrate manned and unmanned aerial vehicles in the tactical and […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes ‘However beautiful the strategy, one should occasionally look at the results’[1] Great power competition and not the fight against terrorism is now […]
Reading Time: 8 minutes In a time of increasing emphasis on the information domain, perhaps the words ‘See first, understand first, disseminate decisively’ offer a mantra […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes Guidelines for Debate as a PME Tool ‘But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes There is renewed interest in how Australia should navigate the coming decades of rapid technological change and increasing geopolitical multi-polarity coupled with […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes At risk of outing myself as a science fiction nerd, I often find myself thinking about how some themes portrayed in science […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The technological advantage currently enjoyed by western militaries will likely decline in the near future as the spread of information and goods […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes The Russian President recently announced a number of high-tech weapons during his annual address to the nation. Using a combination of speed, delivery methods and size, […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Often when the topic of creating a culture of innovation arises, the discussion seems to focus on running activities such as “hack-a-thons”, […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes There is a profound difference between being an ‘innovative leader’ and being a ‘leader of innovation’. Whereas an innovative leader will drive […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘There is no reason to believe that leadership will be spared the impact of Artificial Intelligence’ Anyone in the military who has served […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘Be mysterious to the point of soundlessness, then be the director of your opponents fate’ An Australian Amphibious Task Group (ATG) assembled […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Innovation is the key to success in modern military operations, thus it is imperative that the military commander be innovative if they […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘The next fight will be a battle of signatures. Assume everything we do can and will be observed. We are going to […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Generating, Expressing and Implementing ideas – A Framework Part 1 of this blog ordered the terms strategy, concepts and defined big ideas. […]
Reading Time: 7 minutes The realisation of a human/machine, robotics, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence approach, may represent the biggest single step innovation change our Army […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes For the past 14 months I have been privileged to serve as an exchange officer with the United States Marine Corps. During […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes I was shocked recently to read a piece by Major General Mick Ryan covering the pretty spectacular failure of his first year in […]
Reading Time: 12 minutes Following decades of relative relegation resulting from uncontested airspace, growing trends have invigorated a renewed emphasis on Air Defence as an essential […]
