Failure at Fromelles
Reading Time: 20 minutes Failure at Fromelles, 19-20 July 1916: Examining failures against the nine tactical […]
Category: Tactics
Finding Maths in the Military
Reading Time: 5 minutes As a maths-teacher-turned-infantry-officer, there are some parts of military planning that I’ve […]
The Value of Sergeants to Lieutenants
Reading Time: 3 minutes You may have heard during Officer training to quickly build a relationship […]
The Misunderstanding of Actions On
Reading Time: 3 minutes Actions on are designed to equip the recipients of orders to quickly […]
Tempus Fugit: Using Time for Cognitive Advantage
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.
Readiness Posture: “Move now, out”
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.
Integrating with Combat Agencies in a National Emergency
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is the second article in a three-part series from the Australian […]
Setting the Standard – Patrolling is not Combat Shooting!
Reading Time: 7 minutes Why can’t they see the enemy? As an Observer Trainer shadowing the […]
Tactical Fighting System: Section Contact Narrative, Part 2
Reading Time: 19 minutes This narrative is designed to explore the difference that robotics, artificial intelligence, […]
Tactical Fighting System: Section Contact Narrative, Part 1
Reading Time: 8 minutes This narrative is designed to explore the difference that robotics, artificial intelligence, […]
Beyond The Multi-Domain Model
Reading Time: 6 minutes Western militaries are struggling to comprehend how to effectively manage the rapidly […]
Edinburgh Castle and the Principles of War
Reading Time: 4 minutes I was fortunate to be able to visit Edinburgh Castle recently and […]
Leonidas’ Legacy: A Matter of Missiles vs Manoeuvre
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘Our archers are so numerous, said the envoy, that the flight of […]
Shock and Surprise at Slim River
Reading Time: 8 minutes Covered in sweat, and emerging from his Type 97 Medium Tank, Lieutenant […]
Closing the Short Learning Loop
Reading Time: 3 minutes Effective short learning loops support high readiness contingency forces, the development of […]
A System of Systems – Revising the Sub-Unit Training Construct
Reading Time: 4 minutes We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall […]
Fighting the Hydra: Flexibility, Mission Command and the Australian Amphibious Force
Reading Time: 5 minutes For the last two years I have written ‘Letters from HAMEL’ for […]
Shades of Grozny: Anti-Tank Drones and the Yom Kippur Effect
Reading Time: 8 minutes ‘Don’t shoot till you see the glint of their electro-optic sensors‘ Armoured […]
Military Experimentation Part II: Continuous War-Gaming
Reading Time: 5 minutes This article is the second in a two part series that seeks […]
The Future is Now: A Path Forward in Manned-Unmanned Teaming
Reading Time: 5 minutes The future of Australian Army Aviation lies in its ability to successfully […]
Musings on the prominence of Informational Effects in the Operational Art
Reading Time: 8 minutes In a time of increasing emphasis on the information domain, perhaps the […]
Directed Energy Weapons: A Defence Against Emerging Threats
Reading Time: 4 minutes The technological advantage currently enjoyed by western militaries will likely decline in […]
Deception, Diversion & Disguise (3D): Amphibious Operations Success in the Third Decade
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘Be mysterious to the point of soundlessness, then be the director of […]
When Radio Silence is Not Enough: Signature Suppression & the Fight for Surprise
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘The next fight will be a battle of signatures. Assume everything we […]
What is a Warfighting Culture?
Reading Time: 5 minutes For the past 14 months I have been privileged to serve as […]
Army Air Defence: Forget the Missiles
Reading Time: 12 minutes Following decades of relative relegation resulting from uncontested airspace, growing trends have […]
Commander Combat Training Centre’s ‘Fast Five’
Reading Time: 3 minutes The following is based upon my experience over the last five years […]
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 […]
OPFOR TEWTS – Understanding the Enemy’s Mind
Reading Time: 4 minutes Defeating the enemy’s will. That is the essence of manoeuvre warfare, that […]
Contemporary Strategic Effects of Army Attack Aviation
Reading Time: 4 minutes Army attack aviation is a niche capability possessed by a minority of […]
Close Infantry Assault
Reading Time: 4 minutes The key to Army’s success on our next battlefield will be ensuring […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Aide Memoire – Advising and Mentoring Foreign Militaries
Reading Time: 11 minutes 60 tips to become a more effective advisor Advising and mentoring foreign […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Enabling C2 Survivability – Deception, Technology and Redundancy
Reading Time: 3 minutes Survivability of communication systems has been called into sharp focus given technology […]
Second Battle of El Alamein – The Lost Manoeuvrist Battle?
Reading Time: 13 minutes The Second Battle of El Alamein was the decisive battle of […]
Command and Leadership – Fit to Fight
Reading Time: 12 minutes “Australian Soldiers identify with their Battalion. It’s indeed their family: it leads, […]
Transformation of War – Mortal Violence for Rational Ends
Reading Time: 5 minutes War is simply a continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of […]
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 […]
Rethinking Force Structures: Delivering Tailored Forces
Reading Time: 4 minutes If our forces in action are to have utility, we need to […]
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) […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Time Wasted and Lessons Learnt
Reading Time: 10 minutes It takes considerable knowledge just to recognise the extent of your own […]
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 […]
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 […]