Episode 156

We start with some words about delayed flights in Australia and how this is a metaphor for obscure Defence decision-making, especially on subjects like AUKUS. Nuclear-powered submarines are great for travelling long distances at high speed underwater but there has never been any analysis of how this benefits Australia - particularly for the gigantic amounts of money involved. Then some more words about Ukraine and the use of AI-enabled uncrewed systems. Ukrainian forces have completed - or are just about to complete - a 4-phase offensive that has regained significant amounts of territory illegally occupied by Russia - and has continued to inflict around 1,500 casualties per day. The key enabler for this operation has been the use of uncrewed ground vehicles - a clear indication of how rapidly the nature of warfare is changing. Australia remains completely oblivious to what is going on, treating uncrewed technology as a curiosity rather than a fundamental game-changer. Even the US has woken up to this with comic book character Pete Hegseth announcing that an autonomous warfare command will be established. This is accompanied by a 120 day review into the entire future of warfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.