Category: Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Australian Army builds drone air force

“Army is Australia’s biggest and most experienced user of drones,” claimed General Angus Campbell when Chief of Army. The facts support him. Air Force is out of the drone business until next decade when...

Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Nuclear weapons and U.S. national security

Several themes in the Trump Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) demonstrate that Washington has an increased determination to make nuclear weapons more useful in pursuit of its national security interests. An unclassified version of...

Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Currawong’ achieves IOC

The Australian Defence Force’s Integrated Battle Telecommunications Network (I-BTN) capability has achieved the Initial operational Capability (IOC) milestone for the Initial Material Release of equipment. The I-BTN is being delivered by Boeing Defence Australia...

Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Battlefield mobility in the amphibious domain

The Australian Defence Force’s battlefield aviation capability achieved a major milestone in the littoral domain recently, with the successful employment of Army’s battlefield mobility helicopters as part of an Amphibious Task Group (ATG). The...

Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Robot Wars: UGVs on the battlefield

Robots are reaching the land battlefield. The technology involved was already becoming more capable and robust, but the Iraq War significantly boosted robotic development. The large-scale use of improvised explosive devices (IED) by insurgents...

Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Amphibious Warfare

Interview with Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Pashley Commanding Officer 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment Previously, one of the Australian Army’s general-purpose infantry units, the 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment Amphibious (2 RAR Amphib) is now...

Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Hawkei enters Army service

The Australian Army’s new Hawkei protected mobility vehicle (PMV) is now becoming a familiar sight around the country, as low rate initial production of vehicles builds pace at Thales Australia’s manufacturing facility at Bendigo...

Australian Land Forces

September 10, 2018

Syria, Iran & Israel: Strike. Counter-Strike. Repeat.

In the first half of 2018 the militaries of Israel and Iran have escalated the confrontation between their two countries, using Syria as the battleground. Last February, an Iranian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) crossed...

China's grip on rare earths puts focus on Australia June 23, 2019
China's veiled threats to cut its rare earth supply as part of its trade war with the United States have thrown the spotlight on whether Australia - the world's second-biggest producer - can step in to fill the gap. China dominates the global rare earth market, producing more than 70 per cent of last year's […]
AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE CADETS REACHING FOR THE STARS June 23, 2019
The sound of the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) old and new frontline fighters rains down through the roof of the marquee-come-mess where military personnel are seated for lunch. The FA-18 Hornet flying overhead in company with the F-35 Lightning II represents a changing of the guard. However, there is also generational change taking place […]
US, Australia sign cross-servicing agreement for C-17A transport aircraft June 23, 2019
The United States and Australia have agreed on a cross-servicing arrangement for the repair and maintenance of Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport aircraft, the Department of Defence (DoD) in Canberra announced on 21 June. The Aircraft Repair and Maintenance Service Implementing Arrangement (ARMS-IA) will allow C-17A technicians from the United States Air Force (USAF) and […]
NASA contract demonstrates northern Australia’s potential as a space launch hub June 23, 2019
The geographic and economic landscape of northern Australia, as well as its history and ecology, differ in fundamental ways from southern Australia with its large cities and well-connected inhabitants. Sparsely populated, the north typically has vast open spaces with little infrastructure. Many Australians living in the north actually live closer to some of the world’s […]
Iran executes ‘defence contractor’ over spying as Trump vows new sanctions and keeps military strike option open June 23, 2019
Iran has executed a “defence ministry contractor” convicted of spying for the CIA, semi-official news agency ISNA reported. “The execution sentence was carried out for Jalal Haji Zavar, a contractor for the defence ministry’s aerospace organisation who spied for the CIA and the American government,” ISNA reported, quoting the Iranian military. ISNA said he was […]
The Air Force has a new drone-killing microwave weapon named 'Thor' June 23, 2019
U.S. military bases across the globe may soon have a New Mexico-made, high-powered microwave weapon at their disposal to instantaneously down swarms of enemy drones. The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base unveiled the weapon Thursday morning in a live demonstration with local reporters, who watched the system effortlessly knock a hovering […]
US Defence Company Used 'Hypothetical' War With Iran to Sell Global Hawk Drones to Pentagon - Report June 23, 2019
Already simmering tensions between the US and Iran nearly escalated into a direct confrontation following the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) downing of a US Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk spy drone flying over the coastal province of Hormozgan after it allegedly violated the country's airspace. More than 10 years ago, the US Department of […]
Everything's coming up Kraken, as St. John's company picks up rare U.S. military contract June 23, 2019
Innovation is the name of the game for Kraken Robotics, and it's paying off as just this month the company signed a rare contract with the United States navy on top of another U.S. deal. "We're pretty pumped," said president and CEO Karl Kenny. "It's a fairly big deal. Only a few of these are […]
Raytheon to Conduct Cyber Assessments of USAF Aircraft Systems June 23, 2019
Raytheon and the Air Force are working on a type of “bug bounty” focused on addressing cyber deficiencies, but this time on aircraft. The company is contracted to conduct cyber vulnerability assessments on several aircraft subsystems and then work to mitigate the issues through resiliency instead of simply aiming to be impervious to attacks, said […]