
Australia’s Military Strategic Challenges – Close to Home
The 16 September 2021 announcement of an enhanced trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) confirmed beyond any remaining doubt that the Australian Government considers its strategic environment to have permanently changed. The 2020 Defence Strategic Update presaged the announcement by highlighting a number of developments which had swiftly altered the strategic landscape of the Indo-Pacific region since the publication of Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper.

Reality Check for Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality offers unlimited potential for military training and application, but there are profound ethical, moral, psychological and legal challenges to overcome before it can be put to widespread use.

Countering Robotics and Autonomous Systems through Maritime Area Denial
Muddying the waters acoustically will be equally important as guided munitions when it comes to underwater mine warfare in the new age of Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS). Let’s look at both the kinetic and the non-kinetic approaches.

How Biased Minds can be the Key to Unbiased AI Systems
The TED Talk examines the origins of Cognitive Bias, its advantages, drawbacks and challenges with Biased AI. The solution might lie within ourselves.

Reforming Culture: Preparing Defence for AI
Every day, artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more accessible, scalable and affordable. Disruption is not only possible, it is an inevitable - and leaders must start preparing for it now. However, the Australian Defence Forces’ (ADF) organisational culture is poorly equipped for - if not entirely opposed to - the fast and complete adoption of AI-enabled warfare. This paper explores the changes that Defence will need to make in order to prepare for artificial intelligence.

The Value Proposition for Developing a Future Intellectual Edge
Mick Ryan offers a new ‘value proposition’ for the intellectual development of military personnel for conflict in the 4th industrial revolution.

Links to Follow
Twitter feeds and podcasts to follow.

Journals
Recommended publications.

Capability Boost: Trials Demonstrate Enhanced ViDAR/ScanEagle Package
This article from Jane’s International Defence Review discusses the use of Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) technology on the ScanEagle unmanned aerial system (UAS) platform to provide detection capabilities comparable to radar using Electrooptical (EO) and Infra Red (IR) sensors.

Australian Links
Useful JPME Links - Australia.

Overseas Links
Useful JPME Links - Overseas.

Ethics and the Brave New Brain
Advances in neuroscience and AI could revolutionise medicine but they also pose significant ethical and social challenges. If a brain computer interface can allow a blind person to see, or restore speech to those who've lost the ability to communicate, what does this mean for a person's sense of self, personal responsibility or privacy?