The Edge

Understanding the Women, Peace and Security agenda

2020 is a milestone year for the 'Women, Peace and Security' agenda. Chief of Army Scholar, Lyndsay Freeman outlines the basics of this agenda, and how the ADF implements its core principles of supporting women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, prioritising their protection in humanitarian crises, and increasing women’s leadership and decision-making.

The Thinking Combat Brigade: A Dominant and Prestigious Force

Our command teams are charged with constant decision making, on which hinges the success and failure – the life or death – of battles, operations and campaigns. What if the frames of reference we all possess, imposed on us from our similar training, experiences, and culture, could be hindering our ability to make the best decisions? What if we are not as smart as we think we are?

Synchronising Counterinsurgency Ops with Effective Intelligence

All combat operations need real-time, concrete intelligence, but the counterinsurgency operations’ (COINOPS) margin of error runs thinnest. In their fast, multidimensional context, COINOPS demand more comprehensive intelligence at platoon/company levels than conventional warfare does. This article explores the need for tactical unit leaders fighting insurgencies to have more intelligence assets available in the field in order to offer swift analyses to aid decision making in highly fluid environments.

Air Force launches The Runway

The Runway, Air Force’s new professional development platform designed to foster a broad community of learning was launched on 31 Oct 19 by Commander Air Force Training Group, Air Commodore Glen Braz.

Air Force, Australian Defence Organisation and other government agency personnel are invited to engage with the curated content and take the opportunity to participate in a whole-of-government discussion around the key topics affecting the delivery of air and space power for Australia’s future.

Loose Lips Bring Ships: Operations Security in Operation Sovereign Borders

OPSEC requires constant monitoring to ensure it addresses the identified vulnerabilities and mitigates the assessed risks. It may be that this needs to occur not only in the chain of command, but by Defence publications as well.

Moving tanks by water: A short history of Australia’s tank-capable amphibious capability

Responsibility for maintaining a sea-going, tank- or heavy vehicle-capable landing craft capability has historically shifted between the Army and Navy. Today, the ADF lacks a dedicated green-water amphibious capability to support operations in a region characterised by great rivers, but poor transport infrastructure.

Mobilisation in the Information Technology Era

Our fundamental ideas about mobilisation are being challenged under the impact of the IT revolution. Impacting all of us, this is an area deserving our close attention.

Augmented Reality and the Future of Learning and Business

Our interaction with the technological world today is changing rapidly. We are no longer limited by screens or even reality as we knew it. David Rapien walks us through the history and differences of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and looks towards the future options of these technologies in life, business and education.

ADFA Presentation 2019 – General Sir Peter Cosgrove, AK, MC

The Governor-General of Australia, General Sir Peter Cosgrove, AK, MC, addresses ADFA staff and trainees

Catalogue of Technology, Knowledge and Concepts by Best-Selling Author Ray Kurzweil

Kurzweil Network is a small format digest — featuring hand-picked, specially curated stories and resources. This website is also home to the permanent collection of writings and commentary by Ray Kurzweil. It follows progress in the science and technology landscape, with topics including biology, nanotech, materials science, electronics, computation, artificial intelligence, robotics, web, pattern recognition, virtual reality, and prosthetics + body augmentation.

Neuro Embodied Design: How We’ll Become Cyborgs and Extend Human Potential

Humans will soon have new bodies that forever blur the line between the natural and synthetic worlds, says bionics designer Hugh Herr. In an unforgettable talk, he details "NeuroEmbodied Design," a methodology for creating cyborg function that he's developing at the MIT Media Lab, and shows us a future where we've augmented our bodies in a way that will redefine human potential -- and, maybe, turn us into superheroes. "During the twilight years of this century, I believe humans will be unrecognizable in morphology and dynamics from what we are today," Herr says. "Humanity will take flight and soar."

Queryable Earth: A Searchable database of Earth

What if you could search the surface of the Earth the same way you search the internet? Will Marshall and his team at Planet use the world's largest fleet of satellites to image the entire Earth every day. Now they're moving on to a new project: using AI to index all the objects on the planet over time -- which could make ships, trees, houses and everything else on Earth searchable, the same way you search Google. He shares a vision for how this database can become a living record of the immense physical changes happening across the globe. "You can't fix what you can't see," Marshall says. "We want to give people the tools to see change and take action."