Army Air Defence: Forget the Missiles
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 […]
Category: Blog
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.
War Thunder and Open Source Experiments?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Not everyone thinks that online games are the realm of the military professional. In my case I don’t feel bad about it […]
150 Years On – What’s Left to Learn from the ‘Letterman Plan’?
Reading Time: 4 minutes The story of MAJ Jonathan Letterman and the ‘Letterman Plan’ should exist forever in Combat Health lore as one of the professions […]
Commander Combat Training Centre’s ‘Fast Five’
Reading Time: 3 minutes The following is based upon my experience over the last five years as a Commanding Officer and Commander of the Combat Training […]
Return to the Jungle: a Renaissance of Close Country Warfare
Reading Time: 5 minutes The Indo‐Pacific region is in a period of unprecedented transformation, accelerated by the shifting distribution of economic and political power[i]. The importance […]
Trusting Imperfection: Getting Mission Command to Succeed
Reading Time: 4 minutes The commander also strikes and accepts compromises in his [or her] command: not all his men and officers will be perfect, and […]
OPFOR TEWTS – Understanding the Enemy’s Mind
Reading Time: 4 minutes Defeating the enemy’s will. That is the essence of manoeuvre warfare, that you defeat the enemy’s will to fight rather than his ability […]
Contemporary Strategic Effects of Army Attack Aviation
Reading Time: 4 minutes Army attack aviation is a niche capability possessed by a minority of global militaries. As a capability which had its genesis in […]
Close Infantry Assault
Reading Time: 4 minutes The key to Army’s success on our next battlefield will be ensuring we pay adequate attention now, and applying enough resources to […]
An Eye on the Sky – UAS as an Enduring Presence in Conflict and Training
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Australian Army’s use of drone footage in its recent video of 7 Brigade’s Combined Arms Training Activity (Ex Diamond Run) reinforces […]
The Busy Platoon Commander’s Reading List
Reading Time: 3 minutes There are many reading lists available to the military professional and an increasing focus on Professional Military Education within Army. These reading […]
Less is More: The Enabled Combat Brigade Headquarters
Reading Time: 11 minutes Editor’s Note: This is Grounded Curiosity’s 3rd most read article of all time. INTRODUCTION The Army must be a force capable of exerting ‘land […]
A Shared Responsibility – Growing our Understanding of Air Defence
Reading Time: 3 minutes Air Defence continues to grow as a capability and concept against the increasingly complex array of airborne threats. In Australia, this can […]
Aide Memoire – Advising and Mentoring Foreign Militaries
Reading Time: 11 minutes 60 tips to become a more effective advisor Advising and mentoring foreign militaries has been carried out by the Australian Defence Force […]
Death From Above – Armoured Mortar System
Reading Time: 4 minutes Death from above or a crude weapon for a crude war? The utility of the armoured mortar system in future warfare The future operating environment […]
A Joint Force – An Overview of Army’s Land Combat System
Reading Time: 19 minutes Keynote Address delivered on 26 October 2017 by Major General Fergus McLachlan AM, Forces Commander – Australian Army, to the Northern Australian Defence Summit, […]
Australian Tactical Design: Development and Use of Decisive Events
Reading Time: 21 minutes War is a science covered with shadows in whose obscurity one cannot move with an assured step. Routine and prejudice, the natural […]
Mentoring, Mission Command, and the Value of the Officers’ Mess – Increasing the ‘Speed of Trust’
Reading Time: 3 minutes This blog reflects on the important role of the Army Officers’ Mess in the author’s early regimental service. Traditions of the Army […]
What is Modern Military Leadership? A Primer
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Australian Army senior leadership team has been articulating the need for our Army leadership style to evolve to take on a […]
Training The Way We Fight – Aide Memoire for RSOI&E
Reading Time: 7 minutes The Benefits of Incorporating Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, Integration and Extraction into the Training Environment INTRODUCTION Whether it is deploying on global […]
Driving Innovation Forward: Why Tempo Is Everything
Reading Time: 4 minutes A commander must accustom his staff to a high tempo from the outset and continually keep them to it. If he once […]
ReUnions and the Returned & Services League of Australia
Reading Time: 9 minutes Opportunities for decentralised & informal care to our Veterans & our Wounded, Injured and Ill ‘The day soldiers stop bringing you their […]
Case Study – Chief of Army’s History Conference
Reading Time: 5 minutes Reflections from the Chief of Army History Conference – and why you should attend. The Chief of Army History Conference is held every two […]
Enabling C2 Survivability – Deception, Technology and Redundancy
Reading Time: 3 minutes Survivability of communication systems has been called into sharp focus given technology advances and their use in contested theatres. It is here […]
Second Battle of El Alamein – The Lost Manoeuvrist Battle?
Reading Time: 13 minutes The Second Battle of El Alamein was the decisive battle of the North African campaign fought between the Allied 8th Army […]
Partners In Innovation: Observations From ‘Across The Ditch’
Reading Time: 3 minutes This year I was fortunate enough to attend the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) second annual Army Innovation Competition at Linton Military […]
Conversation Starter – Goodbye To All That
Reading Time: 3 minutes Goodbye to all that [1] There comes a time in every career when we will ‘soldier no more’. When one or both […]
Command and Leadership – Fit to Fight
Reading Time: 12 minutes “Australian Soldiers identify with their Battalion. It’s indeed their family: it leads, feeds, clothes, directs and exhausts them. Its veins are its […]
Transformation of War – Mortal Violence for Rational Ends
Reading Time: 5 minutes War is simply a continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means Carl von Clausewitz And the nature of the case […]
Letters from Talisman Sabre: The Four Currencies of War
Reading Time: 8 minutes Introduction: Ex TALISMAN SABRE and the Beast The Australian military is about to conduct its largest multi-national amphibious operation since the landing […]
Developing Blended Learning: A Digital Learning Platform for Army
Reading Time: 4 minutes A career officer [or soldier] is going to school as long as he [or she] lives. General Matthew Ridgway & Harold H. […]
Learning from the Marine Corps Commandant’s Professional Reading List
Reading Time: 3 minutes Access the 2020 Commandant of the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program here. This article refers to the 2017 reading list. Introduction The Marine Corps Commandant’s […]
Imagining the Future – Global Security in the Age of Autonomous Machines
Reading Time: 16 minutes FOREWORD Clare O’Neill 2017 It can be a difficult and daunting activity to visualise the future operating environment when there are a myriad of different […]
The Perils of Centralising Defence Innovation (and how to overcome them)
Reading Time: 4 minutes As innovation gains momentum throughout defense forces, a common theme seems to be emerging. Militaries, in particular Western ones, are increasingly seeking […]
Silos of Intellectual Excellence
Reading Time: 4 minutes Republished with permission from The Central Blue In this post, Emily Chapman makes the case for increased ‘jointness’ in professional education, outlining a number of proposals to […]
Rethinking Force Structures: Delivering Tailored Forces
Reading Time: 4 minutes If our forces in action are to have utility, we need to organise our standing forces to reflect the change in paradigm […]
Strategy is Dead, Long Live Strategy
Reading Time: 3 minutes In case your head was firmly stuck in the sand looking for the lost city of Ubar in the Empty Quarter, the […]
Learning How to Learn – The switch from training to education and the life-long learner?
Reading Time: 6 minutes The Army builds its intellectual capital in peace and spends it in war Colonel William L. Hauser [1] Introduction I don’t know […]
Leadership in Focus – Vehicle Craft – Blending Technology and Tactical Acumen
Reading Time: 3 minutes There is much discussion and idea exchange about the ASLAV replacement (CRV) and future Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV). These capabilities are a […]
Enhancing Junior Leader Education Through Distributed Short Courses
Reading Time: 4 minutes BLUF. The Australian Army’s education of junior leaders is heavily focused on general outcomes, rarely fostering an environment that compels us to […]
Captain and Coach
Reading Time: 4 minutes Has military thinking or practice seen a separation of two intrinsic command functions: the Commander and the Chief Instructor? This blog expands […]
Data Driven Decision Making – Embracing Technology to Clear the Fog
Reading Time: 3 minutes Imagine being able to predict enemy patrol and aerial surveillance routes with a high degree of certainty, or an increasing vehicle availability […]
Leadership in Focus – Listen, Learn and Lead
Reading Time: 4 minutes Last week the Chief of Army came and spoke to the Royal Australian Armoured Corps’ Senior Leadership Group. His opening remarks immediately […]
Enough Talk – How Do We Professionally Develop Our People?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Quick thoughts on practically applying professional development How do we practically implement professional development instead of just talking about it? Having observed and contributed […]
Debating Doctrine – Reciprocity as an Enduring Feature of War
Reading Time: 3 minutes Debating doctrine Two years ago, Army began an intellectual pivot designed to review the lessons of the past 15 years, better understand the […]
Why Army Officers Should Read About Lord Horatio Nelson
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reposted from The Armchair Colonel with permission of the author. Why should an Army Officer read 853 pages devoted to maritime operations […]
Future Thinking – Crowdsourcing for Defence
Reading Time: 4 minutes Innovation has always been a factor of military thinking to one degree or another, however in recent years it has been gathering […]
Mindfulness for Military: Improving Human Performance, Cognitive Mastery, Emotional Intelligence and Resilience
Reading Time: 6 minutes As the Australian Army seeks methods to improve human performance, cognitive mastery, emotional intelligence, leadership, resilience and innovation it should consider the […]
Exploring Social Media’s Influence During Conflict and Crisis
Reading Time: 17 minutes “I hold it to be of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither […]
Taking A Step Forward On Drones
Reading Time: 4 minutes Last week two French soldiers were wounded and two Kurdish fighters were killed in Iraq by a weaponised Commercial off the Shelf […]
Leadership in Focus – Emotional Intelligence, Leadership and Resilience
Reading Time: 6 minutes It was a popular belief in the past that to build a soldier, we must first break the individual down and re-build […]
Future Thinking – Adaptive Tanking
Reading Time: 6 minutes The evolution of Russian armoured combat power since 1991 […]
Leadership in Focus – The Timeless Leadership Question
Reading Time: 3 minutes The frequently asked leadership question, ‘Are great leaders born or created?’ consistently creates vigorous, robust discussion. So what is the answer? Warren […]
Future Thinking – Cyberspace: A Contested Domain
Reading Time: 4 minutes Australia and Australians are targets for malicious actors—including serious and organised criminal syndicates and foreign adversaries—who are all using cyberspace to further […]
The Resilience Adventure
Reading Time: 5 minutes The first occasion a soldier faces real fear must not be on the battlefield. Just like any other skill, managing one’s fear […]
Future Thinking – Attrition and the Next Air Defence Battle
Reading Time: 7 minutes The forces that we prepare today will be the forces that we take into the battle tomorrow. For the Air Defence capability, […]
Risky Business: Equipping Junior Leaders to Exploit Risk on the Battlefield
Reading Time: 7 minutes ‘In the art of war, lesser men are schemers, who avoid risk with mediocre results.’[i] Napoleon Bonaparte Introduction To an extent unmatched […]
Future Thinking – Space Culture: What do we need for the Future Fight?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Space is a domain that is increasingly contested, congested and competitive. As the cost and technical barriers to space diminish, the range […]
Innovation Toolbox – Innovation: Why do we need it in the military? (Part 1 of 3)
Reading Time: 4 minutes The idea was fantastically, wildly improbable. But like most fantastically, wildly improbable ideas it was at least as worthy of consideration as […]
Social Media in the Military: Opportunities, Perils and a Safe Middle Path
Reading Time: 11 minutes Editor’s Note: This is Grounded Curiosity’s most read article of all time. Knowledge is generated anew from connections that weren’t there before. […]
Tune in, Listen up and Learn.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Like radio, the podcast creates a ‘theatre of the mind’. Imagination is a powerful tool when learning, creating new neural pathways that fuel understanding.
How Electronic Learning Environments Can Support Professional Military Education
Reading Time: 4 minutes Social media is commonly being used by the future leaders of Army for Professional Military Education (PME). Blogs have been accepted as […]
Professional Military Education and Innovation – An Historical Perspective
Reading Time: 3 minutes After recently embarking on a new phase of professional study I have developed a renewed appreciation of the importance that historical lessons […]
Cauldron of Complexity – Are germs the next #FutureFight?
Reading Time: 3 minutes As I cough and sniffle, suffering the effects of a Canberra winter, I remember that germs have two effects on us. First, […]
Letters from HAMEL Part 3: The Operational Level of War. What is it Good For?
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Op HAMEL intervention is ending. With the Kamarian Armed Forces in retreat and the International Boundary restored, peace is steadily returning to East Cultania. Grateful Cultanians line the streets, thanking […]
Letters from HAMEL Part 2: Just War and Tactical Ethics in a Brutal World
Reading Time: 4 minutes Many of you who read this will be tacticians. Congratulations, and good luck. You’ve volunteered for one of the hardest, most illogical and […]
Letters from Hamel Part 1: The Duel, the Enemy and Psychological Mastery
Reading Time: 5 minutes I’ve just watched a Rehearsal of Concept (ROC) Drill on Ex HAMEL, and I’m struck by a thought. I had the same thought […]
How Large Land Force Exercises Hone a Small Army
Reading Time: 4 minutes This week the Australian Army commenced its annual Exercise Hamel in South Australia. A large scale land, air, sea, info-war and cyber […]
Redefining ‘Mountains of Steel’: The Utility of Disaggregated CSS in Contemporary Warfare
Reading Time: 12 minutes Army’s logisticians have operated under an obsolescent doctrine for decades that is out of touch with a rapidly accelerating technological arms race between […]
How do you see the #FutureFight?
Reading Time: < 1 minute The next conflicts will be won by intelligent people with the courage to challenge our current thinking and outlooks. This foundation of innovative people […]
A Review of Army’s Education, Training and Doctrine – Needs for the Future
Reading Time: 5 minutes In 2014, the Australian Army commenced an intellectual pivot designed to review the lessons of the past 15 years, better understand the […]
Junior Leadership in the Australian Army
Reading Time: 4 minutes Do we know why it works or are we doing what we’ve always done? The current Australian Army leadership model is an […]
Fiction vs History: Enduring Features of the Future Fight
Reading Time: 3 minutes A properly schooled officer never arrives on a battlefield for the first time, even if he has never actually trod the ground, if that […]
Training to Innovate – Innovating to Win
Reading Time: 2 minutes How will you fight in the future? As a junior military commander you are responsible for training your team to meet the […]
But I’m in the Military … How can I be an Entrepreneur?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Google ‘entrepreneur’ and what do you get? Besides the offers to study business at a university and the wiki definition, the common […]
Time Wasted and Lessons Learnt
Reading Time: 10 minutes It takes considerable knowledge just to recognise the extent of your own ignorance. Thomas Sowell[1] Introduction The leadership, readiness, resilience, mental toughness […]
Why Reading Science Fiction is Good For Military Officers
Reading Time: 4 minutes The 1143 year long war had begun on false pretenses and only because the two races were unable to communicate. Once they […]
For junior officers – who cares for your boss?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Junior officers know the ‘hurry up and wait’ phenomenon well. Common conversations during these delays range from the first thing you’ll eat […]
Using Social Media as a Junior Leader
Reading Time: 7 minutes Beginning-of-year mandatory briefs are filled with reminders of ‘what not to do’ from alcohol to safety. The social media brief usually delivers […]
Owning Your Professional Military Development – Junior Leaders
Reading Time: 5 minutes Doctrine Man recently penned the well-known military adage that “no one can manage your career better than yourself”. Deployments, top jobs and […]
Defining the Contemporary Veteran
Reading Time: 6 minutes This post was written on Anzac Day in 2014. It flows from thoughts following an Anzac Day Dawn Service in Townsville. Today […]
Lesson Report – Tale of Two Tarin Kowts – Adaptive Action and Critical Thinking
Reading Time: 8 minutes This vignette is from my deployments as a military engineer in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. I was an engineer with Australia’s Reconstruction Task […]
Lesson Report – Thinking on the Ground – Intellect, Strategic Perspective and Adaptability
Reading Time: 3 minutes This image was taken in Uruzgan Province during a patrol by Reconstruction Task Force personnel in 2008. The image depicts the thinking […]