The Challenges Facing Modernization of the Australian Defence Force

The indefatigable Robbin Laird is at it again, providing a unique service to Australian defence and to the U.S.-Australia alliance, with enduring insights arising from the 2024 Williams Foundation seminar and beyond.

In The Australian Defence Force: Meeting the Modernization Challenges, Robbin Laird updates us on the work covered in his previous book, Australia and Indo-Pacific Defence: Anchoring a Way Ahead (2023). That work provided much more than just an overview of material covered at the previous Williams Foundation seminar. His lucid distillation of the key issues and challenges related to Australia and Indo-Pacific defence, spanning air, land, sea and beyond, warrant re-reading. It also sets up the reader for the contrast which follows in this volume.

Laird’s new work focuses on the rub points arising from trying to implement long term strategic choices for acquiring next generation military capabilities, while being required to manage ongoing day-to-day operational requirements for the Australian Defence Force – a force which finds itself increasingly challenged.  Laird explains this as ‘a case study in the clash between force design for an envisaged force and the need to enhance the force in being to deal with the world as it is.’

This book highlights the enduring challenge faced by a democracy in getting the politics right while facing short political cycles and competing national priorities which inhibit government willingness to spend on defence. This reflects the age old ‘guns’ versus ‘butter’ dilemma faced by governments elected not on what might happen on the international stage, but on what they have done so far on the domestic front.

Laird captures the essence of the challenge for defence readiness whereby exquisite platforms are no longer the sole focus, and in planning for continent-spanning defence capabilities, how to build combat mass effectively. The challenge is a significant one in light of the scale of the emergent security issues in the Indo-Pacific to which Australia may be required to respond and the reluctance of governments to spend to match their rhetoric with reality.

Conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and elsewhere, illustrate how, as he puts it, ‘we have entered the world of the kill web where the evolution of warfare is being shaped by payloads’ and ‘combat clusters rather than platform identified task forces’. Uncrewed air, land and maritime vessels are transforming the way battles are fought. Along the way, the introduction of one new technological measure leads to the rapid development, prototyping and fielding of a countermeasure that, in turn, generates rapidly introduced counter-countermeasures. As a result, Laird explains, ‘The problem is that for the current force to be effective, lethal and survivable, it needs to upgrade its force on the fly.’

The 2024 Williams Foundation seminar, which this book draws on, includes a wide range of perspectives on defence modernization and the need to adapt to the rapidly changing operational environment. These includes presentations from senior practitioners and service chiefs from the Australian Navy, Army and Air Force, as well as the space and cyber domains, along with Australia’s AUKUS partner nations, the United States (General Gavin Schneider, Commander U.S. Pacific Air Forces) and United Kingdom (Air Vice Marshal Mark Flewin).

What this amounts to is not so much a call for another revolution in military affairs, but a call for accelerated evolution: ‘We don’t need to destroy everything we’ve learned in the past. We just need to keep investing in that next stage’.

The Williams foundation drew in contributions from a stellar line-up of leaders, thinkers and writers on Australian defence and security, including Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, Air Marshal Stephen Chappell (Chief of Air Force) , Air Vice Marshal Glen Braz (current Air Commander, Australia), and Lieutenant Generals Susan Coyle (Chief of Joint Capabilities) and Simon Stuart (Chief of Army), as well as former director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings, and Phil Winzenberg, the Deputy-Director General Signals Intelligence and Effects from the Australian Signals Directorate.

Winzenberg noted that ‘The Five Eyes alliance is the greatest intelligence partnership the world has ever known… The trust and depth of the partnership… of what we do together is truly staggering.’

This volume also includes a number of significant interviews conducted by Laird covering a range of important related topics. These include an exploration of the deterrence equation as it applies to Australian defence in the alliance context, Australia as an industrial anchor for defence production, the littoral context, the concept of operation for the use of autonomous systems and the path to best leveraging their effects.

Laird also engaged with ANU colleagues like Dr Andrew Carr, Professor Stephan Frühling and Jennifer Parker. Laird tells us Carr argued Australia was not required to ‘do deterrence in the Cold War’ and therefore needs to think afresh about what this means when it comes to a new submarine capability.

Professor Stephan Frühling suggested Australia’s defence contribution was largely about ‘horizontal escalation’, working with allies and regional partners to bolster their national defences and encouraging greater European engagement in Indo-Pacific security arrangements.

Jennifer Parker spoke about the evolving threat environments in the littorals, with many lessons drawn from operations in the Black Sea, Red Sea and Philippines Sea. Then there were others such as Gregor Ferguson and Dr Malcolm Davis (focused on space and cyber).

Included in the appendices is the full text of Lieutenant General Simon Stuart’s presentation to Land Forces 24, in which he addresses ‘the human face of battle and the state of the Army profession’ – a topic to be approached ‘with a great deal of humility, and respect for war’s unpredictable nature.’ This historically-infused review of the place of land forces in the defence of Australia and its interests is well worth reading closely.

Another appendix, by John Blackburn and Anne Borzycki, addresses the impact of the Australian political system on national security. Their reflection on defence policy decisions in recent decades notes their concerns that ‘national security continues to be conducted through a somewhat narrow military platform lens.’ They note that the dismal and costly’ consequences of Australia’s political decisions to get involved in wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, let alone the acquisition of nuclear propulsion submarines absent a wide debate. It is not surprising; therefore, they argue, that ‘Australia lacks a national risk assessment, [and] a national security strategy’. The need for a national security strategy is as great as ever.

This book provides grist for the mill for advocates of a holistic considered national security strategy that makes clear what is required, the urgency of action, the expenses likely to be incurred and the reason why the electorate should be persuaded.

By John Blaxland

John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies and Director of the Australian National University’s North America Liaison Office, based at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC.

For a podcast discussing the book, follow the link.