ASPI suggests
Posted By
Natalie Sambhi
on January 24, 2014 @ 13:00
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the strategy cult classic film by Stanley Kubrick, 'Dr Strangelove or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb'. Over at
The New Yorker, Eric Schlosser looks at
why almost everything in Dr Strangelove, with its farcical take on nuclear security and war, was true.
The Indonesian President is set to overhaul TNI's structure with the formation of multi-service groups with Army, Navy and Air Force assets positioned at potential flashpoints,
according to The Jakarta Post (see below). Aimed at 'foreign threats', the overhaul intends for a more flexible force as 'Each group’s commander, a three-star general, will be given the authority to respond without having to go through the red tape at the TNI headquarters in Jakarta'. More details
here.
Earlier this week Foreign Minister Julie Bishop
spoke in Washington on the ANZUS alliance in an emerging Asia. Drawing on the importance of US–Australia strategic ties during WWII, Bishop said 'we should never be backward in protecting and promoting the regional benefits of this alliance'. Bishop also labelled Edward Snowden 'no hero', saying he 'continues to shamefully betray his nation while skulking in Russia'. Full transcript available
here.
It's the time of year when there's enough time for arguing about 'best of' lists.
The National Interest has just published its '
Five best submarines of all time' list. Few arguments to be had there, but at least the
Strategist's executive editor didn't require sedation after this one—which is more than can be said for their previous '
Top five fighter aircraft of all time' which left out the Fokker DVII and the F-4 Phantom and included the 'couldabeen' Me 262 (although he did like the description of the F6F Hellcat as 'the Honda Accord of the fighter world').
How did we go from codenames like
Operation Overlord (aka the invasion of Normandy in WWII) and
Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 during the Iran hostage crisis, to Operation Anode (ADF deployment to Solomon Islands) and Operation Slipper (ADF in Afghanistan)? If you were wondering why certain codenames are chosen, according to
this Canberra Times article, they're picked by a random word generator to 'remove any ability to derive the type, purpose or target of the operation from the actual codeword assigned to an operation'.
Could
25% of the US military be replaced by robots? This
Breaking Defense piece looks at
the future of robotic warfare (which includes R2-D2s and 'bird dogs') for the US.
Lastly, it's claimed (not entirely seriously) that a Pentagon study has found that
beards are directly related to combat effectiveness (via
The Duffel Bag).
Natalie Sambhi is an analyst at ASPI and editor of The Strategist
(welcome back, Andrew!). Image courtesy of Flickr user van Van Es.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/aspi-suggests-24jan/
[1] Image: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/7920266646_681f6d9fda_z.jpeg
[2] why almost everything in Dr Strangelove, with its farcical take on nuclear security and war, was true: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/01/strangelove-for-real.html
[3] according to The Jakarta Post: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/01/22/tni-gears-sets-sights-foreign-threats.html
[4] Image: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/xp02-defensebudget.jpg.pagespeed.ic_.DGxm34tAQu.jpeg
[5] spoke in Washington on the ANZUS alliance in an emerging Asia: http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/2014/jb_sp_140122.html
[6] Five best submarines of all time: http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-five-best-submarines-all-time-9728
[7] Top five fighter aircraft of all time: http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/top-five-fighter-aircraft-all-time-9526
[8] Operation Overlord: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord
[9] Operation Eagle Claw: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw
[10] this Canberra Times article: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/operation-names-how-do-police-and-the-military-choose-them-20140122-3183x.html
[11] 25% of the US military be replaced by robots: http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140120/DEFREG02/301200035/US-Army-Studying-Replacing-Thousands-Grunts-Robots
[12] the future of robotic warfare (which includes R2-D2s and 'bird dogs') for the US: http://breakingdefense.com/2014/01/bird-dogs-drones-terminators-swarms-the-race-towards-robotic-warfare/
[13] beards are directly related to combat effectiveness: http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/04/pentagon-study-finds-beards-directly-proportional-to-combat-effectiveness/
[14] van Van Es: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sldghmmr/7920266646/