Page 198 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2018

FROM THE SOURCE
LTGEN RICK BURR
The Rheinmetall Boxer CRV under Phase 2 of Land 400 will form the basis of the Combined Armed Fighting team into the future.
Continued from page 190
Getting them in the hands of soldiers is what we need to do with some urgency. This technology and its application is in many ways a catalyst for innovation and mission command in our Army.
I have great confidence in our people to develop innovative ways to use these capa- bilities. Our modernisation strategy works when we can give soldiers new equipment and let them experiment and explore new ways of operating it.
UAVs will change the way we can fight by increasing the situational awareness of our commanders and enabling them to make better decisions based on a greater under- standing of the battlespace around them.
We can be more effective, safer, more precise, and understand our environment so much better with that manned/un- manned teaming aspect.
ADM: How do you reconcile that inte- grated by design approach versus ‘let’s get something really new and cool and put it in the mix’ school of thought?
BURR: It’s always both. You need that spine of what things connect to and design- ing that system so that you can then bolt on pieces as opportunities arise or new devel- opments become rapidly available.
We must build the network and then experiment, otherwise we’ll be back to the problems that we’ve had in the past of having systems that don’t talk to each other and are impossible tointegrate.
But ultimately a culture of innova- tion in our force is essential and ex- perimenting, taking risks, and being prepared to fail is something we must be comfortable with.
ADM: How would you characterise Army’s relationship with the defence industry?
BURR: I think the relationship be- tween Army and defence industry is strong and growing with opportunity but also in terms of a maturing of the overall enterprise and its relationship with industry.
We obviously have a handful of primes that we deal with but we also have arrange-
ments with a large number of small and medium enterprises. I think that’s very ex- citing because the nature of equipping an Army means that there’s lots of room for small companies to contribute across the myriad of equipment and processes that are elemental to how we operate.
In my Army in Motion statement I focused on four themes – people, pre- paredness, army as a profession and po- tential – and the other P, which is cen- tral to all of those, is partnerships. It’s partnering with the best of breed of any- one anywhere which will allow Army to reach our fullest potential.
Defence industry is a key partner in that and I see us going forward, strengthening those relationships to have more sophisti- cated partnerships and achieve better out- comes together.
ADM: In your time as Chief, what do you want to achieve culturally within Army?
BURR: We must continue the great work that we have been doing over the past de- cade or so on the broader journey but it’s
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