The comfortable certainties of the post-Cold War era are over. The time for gradual preparation has passed. Welcome to the age of “Fight Tonight.”

Based on the  September 2025 seminar by the Sir Richard Williams Foundation, this urgent analysis reveals how Australia and its allies must fundamentally reimagine military readiness for an era where conflicts may be decided before the first shot is fired.

Air Marshal Stephen Chappell puts it starkly: deterrence now comes through demonstrated capability, not future promises. Professor Justin Bronk delivers an even more uncomfortable truth: Australia faces a 2-5 year window for preparation, not the 5-10 year timeline most defense planners assume. When Chinese military production includes 120 fifth-generation fighters annually and Russian forces have tripled in size despite massive casualties, the luxury of time no longer exists.

This book exposes the dangerous illusion that acquiring advanced weapons systems equals combat readiness. Industry leaders reveal that mobilization isn’t a switch you flip during crisis. It’s a capability you build years in advance. Ukrainian success against Russia didn’t come from Western equipment alone, but from eight years of pre-war industrial transformation that created “a culture of innovating at wartime speed.”

When NATO forces fire $1.8 million missiles at $20,000 drones, the mathematics become unsustainable within hours. The book reveals how cost-effective solutions like the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) can break this economic death spiral, while examining why Australia’s geography demands forward defense strategies that stretch far beyond traditional homeland protection.

Perhaps most critically, the book exposes the human vulnerabilities threatening Western readiness. Boeing Defence Australia employs 900 active reservists representing 30% of their workforce, if activated for military service, Australia’s Wedgetail training system would “cease overnight.” Meanwhile, 50% of defense industry personnel will have less than three years of experience by next year, creating dangerous knowledge gaps precisely when expertise matters most.

Australia represents a unique “information nation” where 87% of the population lives within 50 kilometers of the coast, connected by digital networks rather than physical proximity. This dependence creates systematic vulnerabilities that China’s sophisticated cyber capabilities are positioned to exploit. With only 15 undersea cables carrying 99% of Australia’s international internet traffic, the nation’s digital democracy faces existential threats from adversaries who have weaponized the very openness democratic societies require.

Lieutenant General Susan Coyle delivers the book’s most sobering assessment: “the use of non-kinetic effects and our ability to defend against those effects prior to and during conflict will likely be the deciding factor in who prevails.” Yet cyber operations require 18 months to three years to develop and embed, while electronic warfare effectiveness degrades as signal processing capabilities improve on both sides. Success demands synchronizing effects across space, cyber, and electromagnetic domains—a challenge most military forces are unprepared to meet.

Rather than accepting alliance dependence, the book charts Australia’s path toward strategic independence through “high-leverage capabilities” or systems that can deter major aggressors through technological sophistication rather than numerical superiority. The $1.7 billion Ghost Shark program exemplifies this approach, designed for rapid scaling from 15 to 180 systems, creating qualitative deterrent effects that potential adversaries must factor into their planning.

Drawing on World War II examples and Ukraine’s transformation, the book demonstrates how early investment in industrial capacity proves decisive. Bill Knudsen’s “Arsenal of Democracy” succeeded because America prepared before war arrived, while Essington Lewis’s frustrated attempts to mobilize Australia’s industrial base show the consequences of bureaucratic delay. The harsh lesson: “money cannot buy lost time.”

Multiple converging factors create windows of opportunity for potential adversaries. American capabilities will improve significantly by 2030, but current political dysfunction hampers decision-making. Chinese leaders likely recognize this temporary advantage window, while Russian production creates conventional superiority that’s economically unsustainable beyond 3-5 years. The traditional 5-10 year defense planning horizon has collapsed to 2-5 years or less.

The book reveals how modern military effectiveness requires shifting from managing discrete crises to thriving within permanent complexity. Ukrainian forces demonstrate this through real-time battlefield feedback loops that evolve tactics faster than adversaries can develop countermeasures. Success demands “chaos management” or the ability to operate effectively within persistent uncertainty while leveraging unpredictability as strategic advantage.

This isn’t just theoretical analysis. It’s an urgent call for transformation backed by specific recommendations from military leaders, industry experts, and strategic analysts who understand the stakes. The book provides actionable insights for military professionals, policymakers, industry leaders, and citizens who recognize that comfortable assumptions about gradual preparation and alliance protection no longer match strategic reality.

Australia and its allies face a fundamental decision: begin serious transformation now during relative peace, or face the consequences of unpreparedness when strategic patience runs out. The comfortable post-Cold War era is over. The age of “Fight Tonight” readiness has begun.

Fight Tonight combines urgent strategic analysis with practical solutions, making it essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how democratic nations can maintain security in an era of great power competition, technological acceleration, and compressed decision-making timelines.

The time for comfortable assumptions has passed. The time for fight tonight readiness is now.