‘There are a number of things to [jamming] and I don’t think we necessarily train it well because it’s a very complex concept.’ In this week’s episode, we talk all things tactical communications or more specifically the options available to communicate within a combat brigade. Our guest this week – CAPT Jack Virtue – has been the signals officer for a combat signals regiment, a combat engineer regiment and an artillery regiment all within a combat brigade. He has also been a communications plann...
Jul 06, 2025•39 min
‘I was always the digger that had slightly out of regs hair, my sunnies fit so nicely on my head so why wouldn’t I put them there and I obviously love non-issued gear ...’ In this week’s episode, the creator of the popular Instagram page Tuesday Night Violence Co. joins us again to talk about his approach to junior leadership. CPL Mitchell Clark is currently posted as the Training Sergeant at 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment (2/17 RNSWR). He has bounced in-and-out of full-time ...
Jun 29, 2025•46 min
‘The reason [the adaptation] is so quick is because they’re being pressed by a very capable adversary.’ In this week’s episode, we shift focus to how Ukraine and Russia are adapting to the threat as each fight in war. Our guest this week – LTCOL James Ellis-Smith – has just raised the Training Intelligence (G72) cell at Forces Command Headquarters, feeding real-world analysis into our training to bring our adversary analysis into the specific and contemporary. He is also a PhD candidate at the A...
Jun 22, 2025•1 hr 4 min
‘The guys are firing in bursts, but you can put a significant rate of fire down to allow us to extricate ourselves from a situation ...’ In this week’s episode, we are joined by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot from the 5th Aviation Regiment in Townsville QLD. Recorded at the Avalon Air Show, our guest this week – CAPT Mac Purbrick – runs us through the state of play in Army aviation and how to fight rotary wing aircraft under all types of threat. C Squadron at the 5th Aviation Regiment is about...
Jun 15, 2025•55 min
‘Strategically, Kashmir offers high altitude military advantage and critical water sources. Emotionally, it invokes pride, pain and nationalism on both sides.’ In this week’s episode, we talk about the most recent tensions in Kashmir, a contested region between India and Pakistan. Our guest this week – Dr Ashok Sharma PhD – is a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales – Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy. His research is in International Politics and he is an expert on...
Jun 09, 2025•53 min
‘Morale in the face of steel doesn’t always work.’ In this week’s episode, we take off from where we left off with the Bombing of Darwin and the Sparrow Force’s work in Timor combating the Japanese advance through South-East Asia and the Pacific. Joined by my regular co-host LTCOL Steve Young, this episode is about the turning point in the Pacific, the Battle for Milne Bay. Following the Bombing of Darwin and Sparrow Force’s deployment onto the island of Timor, the 7th Brigade was sent to Milne ...
Jun 01, 2025•58 min
‘Mobilising the Reserve provides the Regular Army with a relatively quick solution for plugging manpower gaps and also the means to prime the pump.’ In this week’s episode, the creator of the popular Instagram page Tuesday Night Violence Co. joins us again to talk about his reserve battalion. CPL Mitchell Clark is currently posted as the Training Sergeant at 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment (2/17 RNSWR). He has bounced in-and-out of full-time and part-time service and today he ...
May 25, 2025•40 min
‘So, a fistfight ensues a couple of meters inside East Timor and the situation deteriorates very quickly.’ In this week’s episode, we talk through what it is like to deploy with no notice and little preparation onto an island that is on-fire and in turmoil. Our guest – COL John Papalitsas – was a brand-new infantry Platoon Commander at the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment when he got word that he would deploy his platoon to East-Timor as part of International Force East Timor (INTERFET)....
May 18, 2025•1 hr 23 min
‘You think your whole life is going to flash before your eyes but I couldn’t think of anything.’ In this week’s episode, we continue with the defence of the Dili Aerodrome, using 2/2 Independent Commando Company as a case study to examine a small Australian force going up against a large opposing military. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock – just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in the history of Timor first started. MAJ War...
May 11, 2025•53 min
‘Tough men wanted for tough missions.’ In this week’s episode, we continue with the island of Timor but go back to WWII, using Sparrow Force as a case study to examine a small Australian force going up against a large opposing military. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock – just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in the history of Timor first started. MAJ Warnock deployed to Timor as a Special Forces Operator from the Special Ai...
May 04, 2025•40 min
‘I taught 11,000 people how to put up a stretcher.’ In this week’s episode, the creator of the popular Instagram page Tuesday Night Violence Co. joins us to talk through equipment and gear setup. The creator – CPL Mitchell Clark – is currently posted as the Training Sergeant at 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment (2/17 RNSWR) but spends his spare time providing ‘hot chips’ for diggers on fitness, gear and tactical planning activities. CPL Clark has bounced in-and-out of full-time ...
Apr 27, 2025•57 min
‘Language leads to culture and then culture leads to understanding.’ In this week’s episode, we talk through what it would be like to deploy to a pacific or southeast Asian nation using Timor as our case study. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock– just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in Timor first started. MAJ Warnock deployed to Timor as a Special Forces Operator from the Special Air Service Regiment in the first few months...
Apr 13, 2025•50 min
Serving in Special Operations Command (SOCOMD) is an aspiration for many and attainable for some. It is a popular choice for ADF members seeking to take their career to the next level and civilians wanting more out of life than a trade or corporate job can offer. Recruiting is underway to identify the next generation of Special Forces Operators, Engineers, Signallers, Medics and Enablers. Depending on the role, some candidates participate in the Special Forces Selection Course (SFSC) – one of th...
Apr 06, 2025•53 min
‘Nations that win wars are those that subjugate the individual for the team or more importantly the cause for which you are fighting.’ In this week’s episode, we sit down with the Deputy Chief of Army, MAJGEN Chris Smith to discuss warrior culture. Join us as we try to define the warrior culture that we ought to aspire to in the Australian Army. Warrior culture, MAJGEN Chris Smith argues, needs to be a culture that wins battles, and by extension wins wars. It must sustain morale and a fighting s...
Mar 30, 2025•1 hr 2 min
‘You can’t discern where [the rockets were] actually landing and by night, the noise is enveloping.’ In this week’s episode, we talk about the conflict in Israel, Lebanon and Syria with two people that were on the ground on October 7th, 2023. Our guests – MAJ Mick Evans and CAPT Rhys Turner – talk us through their deployment on OPERATION PALADIN and what it was like being there when thousands of rockets started flying. OPERATION PALADIN is the Australian Defence Force support to the UN Truce Sup...
Mar 23, 2025•1 hr 23 min
‘You don’t need to be dead to sell life insurance.’ In this week’s episode, we talk about how to look after yourself and those that you command. Our guest this week is the Senior Medical Officer (SMO) for the Directorate of Army Health – LTCOL Gordon Wing MBBS – who was an infantry officer who deployed to East Timor as a Company Second-in-Command, to the Solomon Islands as an Adjutant and to Afghanistan as a Combat Team Commander and then chose to follow a life-long dream of becoming a doctor. O...
Mar 16, 2025•53 min
‘The warning time that they thought they had completely evaporated in a moment.’ In this week’s episode, we take off from where we left off with Lark Force in Rabaul, New Guinea as the Allies continue to combat the Japanese advance through South-East Asia and the Pacific. Joined by my regular co-host LTCOL Steve Young, this episode is far closer to home, focused on the largest attack on home-soil being on Darwin, Northern Territory. Following Pearl Harbour, the United States identified a need to...
Mar 09, 2025•47 min
Serving in Special Operations Command (SOCOMD) is an aspiration for many and attainable for some. It is a popular choice for ADF members seeking to take their career to the next level and civilians wanting more out of life than a trade or corporate job can offer. Recruiting is underway to identify the next generation of Special Forces Operators, Engineers, Signallers, Medics and Enablers. Depending on the role, some candidates participate in the Special Forces Selection Course (SFSC) – one of th...
Mar 02, 2025•56 min
'With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we can now expect Large Scale Combat in Future Warfare' CAPT Malcolm delves into what we might expect with LSC being one of the main strategies of integrated deterrence. This brings together Allies, Partners and Industry to achieve the desired effect; we must think beyond the land domain and even outside of Army or the military, as we are now working as part of an integrated force. He also explains that with new developments in technology (automated systems, A...
Feb 23, 2025•48 min
‘[A] recruit instructor is … the first point of contact really, for a soldier’s journey’. CPL Numans explains that your main role as an instructor is to train your section of recruits in all the basic soldierly skills, to be ready for Army. You are with them from the moment they step off the bus, through all the drills and lessons, culminating in the field phase where they conduct infantry minor tactics. These are the basic skills that all soldiers need to know. Finally, you are there for them w...
Feb 16, 2025•47 min
'Black Dagger is our activity that gives JTACs the exposure they need to drop live ordinance in close proximity to friendlies.' In the first joint podcast between The Cove Podcast and Hangar 46, we host CAPT Craig Hogendyk (OC JTAC Troop) and Pete (a Fighter Combat Instructor at 1 Squadron, RAAF) to discuss all things Close Air Support (CAS). We discuss how to become a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) or a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC), explain the training pipeline and how each role is em...
Feb 09, 2025•55 min
‘It is really important to look at our defeats’. LTCOL Young explains that Rabaul is potentially one of the most shameful episodes of Australian marshal history. In 1942 The Australian War Cabinet decided not to provide any further reinforcements to the Malayan barrier, leaving the garrisons at Ambon, Timor and Rabaul totally alone with no evacuation plan. This set the conditions for command. COL Scanlan was the commanding officer of Lark Force during the Battle of Rabaul. With limited resources...
Feb 02, 2025•52 min
‘We need to have the ability [and] confidence in ourselves … that we are making ethical decisions’. Today’s episode is on Ethical Decision Making, and with this quote, WO2 Campbell explains that the decisions that our officers and leaders often must make are so far beyond the immediate realm and have the potential for far reaching consequences. CHAP Bouzanquet deftly provides an explanation for the subtle differences between Ethics and Morality. Ethics is the process in which we decide what is r...
Jan 26, 2025•47 min
‘Change is never easy’. Today’s episode is on Recruiting, and this quote underpins the challenges we all face when transitioning into the ADF workforce. Meaningful change takes time, patience and commitment to achieve. Recruitment is a ‘human-to-human endeavour’. While there are systems in place to support it, it boils down to a real person talking to a prospective recruit, making them feel valued and want to join. It is about our ability to connect with people. The main goal for recruiters is t...
Jan 19, 2025•44 min
‘They call it trading steel for blood’. Welcome back to the 2025 season of The Cove Podcast. Our first episode this year is on Project Convergence. Project Convergence is not a command post exercise, it is also not a training exercise. It is a large-scale experiment without the constraints of training levels that allows the US Military, its allies and Defence industry to have at it testing future concepts and the newest war fighting technology. Firing remote HIMARS with an Xbox controller, flyin...
Jan 12, 2025•44 min
LTCOL Brian Hickey is the current Commanding Officer of the Royal Military College - Duntroon (RMC-D) and he is in-charge of the current 12-month Officer Commissioning Program trial. Royal Military College - Duntroon (RMC-D) has recently shifted from the traditional 18-month program to a more intense 12-month course. In this episode, LTCOL Brian Hickey provides valuable insights into what has changed, what has stayed the same and how it impacts the development of the Army's future lieutenants. W...
Dec 16, 2024•50 min
‘History offers us examples of when deterrence has failed but there is still a requirement to deny’. In this week’s episode, we delve into Australia's National Defence Strategy and explore how the concept of Deterrence through Denial has been employed in history. Joined by our regular co-host LTCOL Steve Young, we examine the strategic significance of the Forward Observation Line during World War II, with a focus on three airfields: Laha in Ambon, Kupang in Timor, and Rabaul in New Guinea. We fo...
Dec 08, 2024•43 min
Serving in Special Operations Command (SOCOMD) is an aspiration for many and attainable for some. It is a popular choice for ADF members seeking to take their career to the next level and civilians wanting more out of life than a trade or corporate job can offer. Recruiting is underway to identify the next generation of Special Forces Operators, Engineers, Signallers, Medics and Enablers. Depending on the role, some candidates participate in the Special Forces Selection Course (SFSC) – one of th...
Dec 01, 2024•44 min
Serving in Special Operations Command (SOCOMD) is an aspiration for many and attainable for some. It is a popular choice for ADF members seeking to take their career to the next level and civilians wanting more out of life than a trade or corporate job can offer. Recruiting is underway to identify the next generation of Special Forces Operators, Engineers, Signallers, Medics and Enablers. Depending on the role, some candidates participate in the Special Forces Selection Course (SFSC) – one of th...
Nov 24, 2024•44 min
In this thought-provoking episode of The Cove Podcast, we sit down with Deputy Chief of Army, MAJGEN Chris Smith, to discuss what war would look like and the vital role of human decision-making in military operations. MAJGEN Chris Smith challenges the notion that technology and machine learning will replace the instincts and experiences of commanders. Drawing on historical examples like the Battle of Crete during WWII, he argues that while information is crucial, it is action—and the ability to ...
Nov 17, 2024•43 min
