‘It was grinding on me day in, day out—patrolling, heat, and loads I wasn’t built for.’

In this week’s episode, CAPT Todd Lempa sits down with WO2 Tavis Nicholson, the Warrant Officer Physical Training Instructor (PTI) at the Royal Military College – Duntroon (RMC-D), for a follow-on conversation expanding on his earlier episode, ⁠Beyond Snake Bites: The Evolution of Army Physical Training⁠. This time, we move past concepts and dig into the practical reality of how to programme physical training intelligently across Army — not by guesswork, but by understanding the science and applying it tactically.

WO2 Nicholson starts by breaking down the foundational physical qualities soldiers actually need to perform: strength as the base of load carriage and durability; aerobic capacity as the silent engine behind every long patrol and recovery cycle; and the role of strength endurance, anaerobic capacity, and power layered on top. Drawing on Bondarchuk’s exercise classifications and years of coaching experience, he explains how units can move away from ‘one size fits all PT’ and instead build training around what soldiers actually lack — using ability-based grouping to tailor strength, aerobic, and endurance work without losing cohesion or tempo.

We explore why methods like Repetitions in Reserve (RIR), Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), 1 Repetition Maximum (1RM) lifting, Maximal Aerobic Speed intervals, threshold running, and Zone 2 work differently for different soldiers, and why sequencing sessions correctly matters more than any individual exercise. WO2 Nicholson then talks to what he calls Avatars, scientifically backed Employment Classification profiles that describe where each trade in Army should dedicate their time at PT, contrasting a Rifleman with a Vehicle Mechanic.

Whether you’re a section commander looking to better understand your unit PT program, a platoon sergeant trying to reduce injuries, or an officer wanting to understand how to get the most out of your teams in-the-field and on operations, this episode provides the practical tools needed to build soldiers who can perform under pressure, recover quickly, and stay in the fight.

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Resources:

⁠Little Black Book of Accessory Methods & Workouts⁠

‘If an adversary is operating in a highly enabled headquarters and we’re not, we will fall behind instantly ...’

In this week’s episode, the host sits down with MAJ Tom Berry, a Signals Officer posted to Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC), to unpack the realities of jamming, machine learning, and the future of command-and-control on the modern battlefield. Building on a recent episode titled Tactical Communications with CAPT Jack Virtue, this conversation shifts from line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications to the complex world of electronic warfare, adaptation, and decision-making advantage.

We break down the assumptions many of us still hold about jamming — including the belief that enemy EW will simply “switch off” our command posts and force us back to maps and talcs. MAJ Berry explains why jamming rarely works like that, how most systems retain offline data even when real-time feeds are denied, and why jamming is a double-edged sword that exposes the emitter as much as the target. From GPS and SATCOM spoofing to tactical-level EW effects and A2/AD systems, he outlines the conditions, power requirements, and vulnerabilities that determine how and when jamming is actually effective.

The episode then explores mesh networks, distributed architectures, and what resilient, reconfigurable communications webs can offer a formation — and their limits. We discuss why mesh networks reduce bandwidth stress on BLOS communications, how they support tempo, and why even the best mesh still depends on a reliable BLOS hop.

Finally, we dive into machine learning and its role in enabling commanders and staff. MAJ Berry explains how ML helps find “needles in haystacks,” reduces the staff effort required to decypher useful information, and gives command post staff and commanders the space to create shock, surprise, and decision advantage. We also examine the tension between a commander’s information requirements and the creeping “1000-mile screwdriver” — what leaders need to see versus what they want to see.

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‘'[T]here were .50 cal rounds coming off of Technicals that were ripping through the accommodation buildings…’

In this week’s episode, CAPT Todd Lempa sits down with Warrant Officer Class One Chris Sharp, Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st Armoured Regiment, to talk about Operation ASLAN, getting selected as the RSM of the Army’s first Combat Experimentation regiment and training soldiers in Africa to transforming an armoured regiment at home, WO1 Sharp’s story is one of challenge, adaptation, and belief in people over platforms.

He reflects on his deployment to South Sudan on Operation ASLAN, where he served as a Training Warrant Officer embedded with the United States military, navigating the complexities of operating alongside multinational partners in one of the most demanding environments on Earth. Returning to Australia, he learned he’d been selected as the RSM of the 1st Armoured Regiment — a proud moment quickly tempered by peers questioning whether he was going to a “real armoured combat regiment.”

What followed was an exciting and fast paced change. He began 2025 watching every armoured vehicle in the compound loaded onto trucks and driven away, leaving behind an empty regiment compound. But by the end of the year, his soldiers had delivered one of the standout performances of Exercise Talisman Sabre 25, using uncrewed aerial systems, armed First Person View (FPV) drones, and automated M113s to outmanoeuvre and outthink the enemy party. The result was not just tactical success — it was a cultural one, with soldiers begging to stay in the unit they had helped reinvent.

This episode captures what leadership looks like when tradition meets transformation — how an RSM can build pride, purpose, and lethality in an era where the definition of “armoured” is changing fast.

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‘Nothing narrows the focus more than being properly shot

In this week’s episode, the host sits down with Brigadier David McCammon, the Commander of the Australian Army Cadets and Head of Corps – Infantry, to explore what it truly means to prepare for combat, be in combat, and return from it. Few senior officers have deployed so frequently at the tactical level. From commanding platoons and companies to leading a battalion and a brigade on operations, BRIG McCammon’s operational experience stretches from East Timor and Kosovo to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East.

He reflects on the lessons forged through over two decades of command: the importance of preparation, discipline, and maintaining standards even when they’re unpopular; the leadership required to make hard calls under pressure; and the enduring truth that combat exposes character—it doesn’t create it. We unpack the “70% solution,” why morale isn’t about keeping people happy but giving them something to fight for, and what it means to be the “first adult in the room” when chaos breaks out.

Drawing on his experiences commanding Australia’s first Operational Mentor and Liaison Team in Afghanistan, Task Group Taji, and most recently JTF 1118 during Operation Beech, BRIG McCammon discusses accountability, resilience, and the moral courage required of leaders in war. He offers blunt advice on why he prefers to reign in a stallion as appose to flogging a donkey and what Australia’s next generation of

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“It would be so much easier to say, ‘hey, I was riding on my white horse on the road to Damascus and I got struck down by lightning... but that’s definitely not what occurred.’”

In this week’s episode, the host sits down with Chaplain Gav Keating, whose journey through the Australian Army spans from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, to the Special Air Service Regiment, to commanding the 3rd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment and leading Task Group Taji 6 as a Colonel on Operation OKRA—before making the shift to study theology and become an Army Chaplain. Now serving as the padre at 5/7 Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, Chaplain Keating reflects on the link between leadership, purpose, and what he calls spiritual toughness.

We explore how spirituality—defined not as religion, but as the search for meaning, purpose, and identity—underpins resilience and fighting spirit in soldiers. Drawing on his experience leading troops in combat and counselling them in peace, Chaplain Keating discusses the “big three” questions posed by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live? He uses case studies from his own operational experience and Senator John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to explore what keeps people going when others are deliberately trying to break them.

From the moral component of fighting power to the power of reflection, we unpack how spiritual strength becomes a force multiplier in the profession of arms. Chaplain Keating introduces his concept of a Spiritual Appreciation—turning the Military Appreciation Process inward—and explains what happens when institutions fail to live up to the trust their people place in them.

He closes with a challenge: to take the time to write a personal mission statement and define what truly matters in your life. In a world of relentless tempo and external noise, he argues that clarity of purpose is not something that comes easy—but that it’s the foundation of resilience, leadership, and a strong fighting spirit.

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'These people aren’t ghosts, as much as they attempt to be or seem like it ...’

In this week’s episode, we sit down with MAJ Paul Patty, an Intelligence Officer in the Australian Army, to unpack counterintelligence (CI) in modern conflict. MAJ Patty is an expert in counterintelligence, and his skills have been relied upon in both the private and government sectors. We open with two stark contrasts: a contemporary case study on Ukraine’s operational planning and the consequences when CI is poorly conducted, set against the UK’s Double-Cross system in the Second World War—a successful approach to turn Axis spies to report bogus information back to Germany. We also examine how Russian services seeded spies inside Ukraine and across other post-Soviet states to run grey-zone deception operations, leaking operational plans back to Moscow and distorting Ukrainian decision cycles before contact.

We also confront a hard truth at home: Australians are not immune to recruitment by Foreign Intelligence Services. The classic levers of MICE—money, ideology, coercion, and ego—remain timeless vulnerabilities. Understanding how these levers are pulled, and recognising them early in ourselves and our teams, is essential to preventing insiders from becoming access points into our operations.

From there, MAJ Patty lays out what CI is (and isn’t): not just security compliance, but a campaign to degrade, deny, and manipulate an adversary’s understanding of our intent, capabilities, and movements. We explore how offensive and defensive CI intersect—neutralising hostile HUMINT networks, protecting sensitive capabilities, countering technical

Whether you’re a junior leader looking for practical CI habits or a planner figuring out how to wire CI into targeting, deception, and signature management, this conversation offers a clear, hard-edged primer on

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‘Everyone wants the view, but nobody wants the climb.’

In this week’s episode, we sit down with WO1 Scott Krum, the Regimental Sergeant Major of the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, to revisit the Australian Defence Force’s contribution to the Kabul Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) and to ask, plainly, what we demand of soldiers and officers in 2025 and beyond. From 14–30 August 2021, a US-led, coalition-supported NEO moved approximately 124,000 civilians through Hamid Karzai International Airport; Australia evacuated over 4,200 people on 32 flights. WO1 Krum takes us onto the ground with the Ready Battle Group—through the North Gate and Abbey Gate—to unpack readiness under pressure, ethical restraint amidst chaos, and how discipline and purpose hold when the stakes are highest.

We then pivot to Warrior Culture: what readiness really means (your equipment, your skills, and the reality that sometimes you’re going without), why purpose must be understood and owned at every level, and how healthy competition—especially at a section level—sharpens a unit. We tackle Australia’s tall-poppy syndrome, why a fear of failure (and a candid Black Box Review) is a feature not a bug, and how resilience is built in hard times. We then turn our sights to unit identity and death symbology before WO1 Krum sets a clear standard for behaviour, restraint, and fighting spirit.

We close with WO1 Krum’s challenge to the listeners: if you want to win in Army you must get FILTHY — forget what others think you can do, find intrinsic motivation, take the little wins, remember that what we do is tough, build good habits, and remember that only you can do it.

This episode is recorded from the Australian Army Infantry Museum in Singleton NSW with one of Australia’s most senior and respected soldiers.

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‘The problem is if society becomes accustomed to or reliant on using the army to solve problems or to address failures of civilian capacity.’

In this week’s episode, we sit down with Dr Risa Brooks PhD, a Professor of Political Science at Marquette University and a leading scholar on civil-military relations, to unpack the enduring tension between military effectiveness and democratic control. Drawing on Peter Feaver’s concept of the “problematique,” Dr Brooks examines how this dilemma plays out in democracies like Australia and the United States today.

We explore the public face of the military — why trust, transparency, and perception matter, and why uniformed leaders must tread carefully when engaging publicly. Dr Brooks discusses the risks of politicisation, the responsibilities of senior leaders, and the limits of professional dissent in systems that prize both loyalty and independence.

The conversation also turns to the paradox of trust: how high public confidence in the military can lead to its overuse in civilian roles, and what that means for long-term legitimacy. We ask whether silence is always the right response to criticism, whether the expectation of apolitical conduct can itself be a trap, and how accountability should be exercised by senior leaders in difficult times.

Finally, Dr Brooks highlights what healthy civil-military relations look like in practice, points to international models worth learning from, and offers practical advice for Australia’s emerging leaders on how to strengthen civil-military trust for the future.

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‘Our boss at the time [was] very experienced in [Air Mobile Operations] and really raised us... [to be] tuned into the detail in terms of planning chalks and serials and bump plans ...’

On this episode of The Cove Podcast, we sit down with CAPT Jimmy Wilson, a Small Group Instructor at the Royal Military College – Duntroon (RMC-D), to unpack the Australian Defence Force’s new Decision Making and Planning Process (DMPP). An Infantry Officer with service in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment; the Combat Training Centre; and the 8/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, CAPT Wilson now teaches the Army’s newest officers how to plan and make effective decisions.

The DMPP replaced the Military Appreciation Process (MAP) which was made up of the Combat Military Appreciation Process (CMAP), Individual Military Appreciation Process (IMAP), and the Staff Military Appreciation Process (SMAP). The DMPP now includes two processes, the Immediate Decision-Making Process (IDMP) and the Deliberate Military Appreciation Process (DMAP). At its core, the DMPP puts the commander back at the centre of planning—driving the process through timely, intuitive decision-making. As CAPT Wilson explains, this isn’t about reinventing the wheel, but codifying practices already being applied on major exercises and operations and allowing more flexibility and intuition.

Whether you’re a junior leader grappling with planning for the first time, or part of a formation headquarters staff transitioning from the MAP to the DMPP in your formation, this episode provides practical insight into how RMC-D is rolling out the new training package—and what it means for leaders across the Army.

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‘Again, you’re talking to someone who used to shave and drink out of the same cup ...’

In this week’s episode, we welcome back LTCOL Gordon Wing MBBS, the Senior Medical Officer in the Directorate of Army Health. An infantry Combat Team Commander turned Medical Doctor, LTCOL Wing brings his expertise in military medicine and prevention. His first appearance on the podcast covered the Military Employment Classification System; this time, we explore a topic with immediate, practical consequences for every soldier — field hygiene.

From the campaigns at Milne Bay and the Huon Peninsula to the more recent deployment of Australian forces to INTEFET in East Timor, history reminds us that disease and poor sanitation can cripple armies just as easily as the enemy. General Douglas MacArthur is famously quoted as saying ‘[t]his will be a long war if, for every division I have facing the enemy, I must count on a second division in hospital with malaria and a third division convalescing from this debilitating disease.’ In this conversation, LTCOL Wing explains why hygiene remains a commander’s responsibility, and how discipline in the basics — cleanliness, waste management, water control, and illness prevention — is a combat multiplier.

He breaks down what good hygiene looks like in austere environments, from simple routines every soldier can maintain without showers, to wider practices like dipping cams and medication. We discuss common illnesses in the field, how quickly poor hygiene can degrade operational effectiveness, and what leaders at every level can do to prevent infections

Drawing on his medical expertise combined with his time in command in-the-field, LTCOL Wing offers practical, evidence-based advice: how antimicrobial wipes stack up against soap and water, how bacteria is passed through the urinary tract, and the role of medications like doxycycline in prevention. He also shares some essential hygiene rules every soldier should follow during high-tempo operations to remain healthy and combat effective.

This episode is a timely reminder that maintaining health in the field is as much about discipline and leadership as it is about medicine — prevention against illness or injury in our potential operating environment will sustain a large fighting force to win.

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Leading source: The Battle Lab’s article on Field Hygiene published on The Cove.