A sampling of recent research efforts, articles and podcasts
Defending What Matters: Countering Drones and the Challenge of Prioritisation in Australia
October 2025 - Carl Rhodes
Australia’s domestic drone threat requires difficult choices about what to protect, how to allocate scarce counter-drone resources and what capabilities to develop. This article proposes a layered approach combining intelligence, passive protection and active defences, with resources directed where they deliver the greatest reduction in national security risk. Clear coordination across Defence, police, other agencies and infrastructure operators is essential. Army, particularly the 2nd (AS) Division, could contribute specialist expertise and deployable surge capacity.
Small Aircraft, Sizeable Threats: Preparing Army to Counter Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems
2024 - Carl Rhodes
Small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS) are widely available, militarily effective and challenging to defeat. This Occasional Paper on counter-sUAS, prepared under the Army Research Scheme, reviews recent employment of sUAS and evaluates methods to sense and engage these systems.
Book Review - The Hand Behind Unmanned
11 August 2026 - Carl Rhodes
Jacquelyn Schneider and Julia MacDonald draw on a century of US military history to show how advocates within the Pentagon, service cultures, budget pressures and the desire to reduce casualties shaped which autonomous systems the military adopted. The review praises the book’s detailed account of Pentagon decision-making and suggests that it could have given more weight to how urgent battlefield needs drive the adoption and adaptation of existing technology.
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance in Support of Sea Denial in the Red Sea
26 March 2026 - Carl Rhodes
The Houthis’ Red Sea campaign shows how a land-based force can use off-the-shelf sensors, external intelligence and mobile tactics to sustain a sea denial campaign and impose disproportionate costs on a much stronger navy. For the Australian Army, the lesson is to combine commercial sensors with intelligence analysis conducted away from the front line, while keeping forward units small, mobile and hard to detect.
The Deterrence Down Under Podcast (all episodes starting in January 2025)
Hosts - Carl Rhodes and Christine Leah
Carl is a regular host and contributor to the Deterrence Down Under Podcast, which is part of the National Institute for Deterrence Studies podcasting network.
HQ-Nein: Analysts Say No Evidence Iran Is Using Modern Chinese Air Defense Systems
6 March 2026 - Carl Rhodes interview with Josh Hoang-Wilkes
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