Australia is a maritime nation reliant on trade. Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC) directly affect our economy, our resources and our concomitant ability to field and sustain a credible maritime deterrent.
It is a curious statistic of the First World War that more sailors and officers were killed in action on Minor War Vessels than on Major Fleet Units in all navies involved in the conflict.
Junior Military leaders often miss the relationship between policy and strategy, particular as it subsequently applies to an operation. In the international community, states interact to advance self-interests however; this can cause either deliberate or inadvertent conflict.
"In Tac Talks (July 2017), there were a number of discussions on the role of the rat-catchers” and the organisational need to counter the long lee. The long lee refers to a prolonged period of peacetime operations provided by a milestone maritime victory. In the simplest terms, a rat-catcher is an out of the box thinker who is required in wartime to seize the initiative and put their opposite number on the back foot."
Constabulary Operations (as the RAN defines them) have been undertaken by navies since there have been navies, as early as 3050 BCE by the Ancient Egyptians (Gilbert, 2008). One recent analysis determined that almost half of the world navies’ are incapable of operations beyond constabulary, and most navies worldwide are involved in some fashion in Constabulary Operations.
A Thursday War is the colloquial name given in the Royal Navy for the weekly war-fighting and damage control exercises that are held during Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST), so named because they are usually held on a Thursday.
Almost hand-in-hand with the rapid development, proliferation (and subsequent price drop) of some capable drones with image capture ability; underwater ROVs have taken a similar path and now represent an affordable way to capture underwater imagery. For a modest outlay, a mini-ROV with a still image and/or video capture ability can be quite a handy asset to have in a deployment toolkit.
Australia is a sun-kissed and lucky country. We’re fortunate enough to live and work in a peaceful, quiet, clean and beautiful land with the best sandy beaches on earth. This fortunate happenstance however poses unforeseen military challenges to the defence of our nation, and the operational effectiveness of our indigenous mine hunting forces.
We have a unique maritime role. We are the only Tall Ship in Australia to conduct blue-water ocean sailing. We have over 100 lines aboard that operate our 10 sails.