Friday, January 2, 2026
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  • Honesty is always the best policy
  • Why won’t the Chief of Army answer this question?
  • Is the Chief of Army just a figurehead?
  • Doors and distractions
  • Australia completes delivery of tanks to Ukraine

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CONTACT magazine

Author: Posted by Brian Hartigan

An Australian Army M1A1 Abrams fires its 120mm cannon during a live-fire serial for the Coral Balmoral Cup 2024 at the Puckapunyal Military Area, Victoria. Photo by Corporal Johnny Huang.
Letters to the Editor 

Honesty is always the best policy

01/01/202601/01/2026 Posted by Brian Hartigan 129 Views 0 Comments

Let’s look at what the Chief of the Defence Force and Minister have said were the reasons for the tanks

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Letters to the Editor 

Why won’t the Chief of Army answer this question?

27/12/202527/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 413 Views 0 Comments

Why was the need for a unit to evaluate emerging technologies so urgent that it justified demoting Army’s most senior

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Australian Army soldiers from 2nd Cavalry Regiment perform a counter attack demonstration during the T4 (D Squadron) Raising Ceremony at Lavarack Barracks, Townsville, Queensland. Photo by Private essica Gray.
Letters to the Editor 

Is the Chief of Army just a figurehead?

20/12/202520/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 674 Views 1 Comment

In the famous words of Julius Sumner Miller: Why is This so?   1st Armoured Regiment is the senior regiment

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Editor's Vlog 

Doors and distractions

20/12/202520/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 681 Views 2 Comments

Some weeks don’t go to plan. This past week was full of distractions. First, my brother needed me for two

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Letters to the Editor 

What price 1st Armoured Regiment’s esprit-de-corps, heritage and tradition?

16/12/202516/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 442 Views 0 Comments

The loss of combat power suffered by 3 Brigade (Armoured) is relatively easy to quantify in terms of unit strength

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Editor's Vlog 

Make a door from rotten old fence

13/12/202514/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 528 Views 0 Comments

This week I make door panels from dirty, ‘rotten’, old fence palings. It’s unbelievable how much beauty is hidden beneath

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Crewmembers of HMNZS Aotearoa disembarked to a warm welcome home after an 8-month deployment. NZDF photo.
New Zealand News 

HMNZS Aotearoa home after 8-month deployment

12/12/202512/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1130 Views 0 Comments

Friends, family, haka, senior defence leaders and the Royal New Zealand Navy band were all on hand at Devonport Naval

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A Lockheed Martin employee handling a HIMARS missile at Port Wakefield. Lockheed Martin video screen grab.
Australian Army News Sovereign industry 

Lockheed Martin commences missile assembly at Port Wakefield

12/12/202512/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1219 Views 0 Comments

Lockheed Martin Australia, in partnership with Defence, has commenced operations in a new Missile Assembly Facility in Port Wakefield, South

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New Zealand soldiers supervise Ukrainian soldiers during an urban-operations training session. NZDF photo.
Europe New Zealand News 

New Zealand Defence Force teams provide specialist training to Ukraine forces

12/12/202512/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 850 Views 0 Comments

Specialist teams of New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel continue to train Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) personnel in the

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Soldiers of the 1st Armoured Regiment honour their unit's Guidon and first Standard in Adelaide. Photo by Private Sophie Hartley.
Letters to the Editor 

Dismal end to the Army’s most senior unit

12/12/202514/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 37673 Views 15 Comments

The following quote is from the Wikipedia entry for the Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC): “The removal of 1st Armoured

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An Australian designed and built MQ-28A Ghost Bat fires an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile during Trial Kareela at RAAF Base Woomera, South Australia. RAAF image.
Australian News Royal Australian Air Force Science & Technology Sovereign industry 

MQ-28A Ghost Bat wins big after live fire

10/12/202510/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1140 Views 0 Comments

The Australian government will invest approximately $1.4 billion to transition the MQ-28A Ghost Bat into a fully operational war-fighting asset

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Ngāti Tūmatauenga, the New Zealand Army formally stands up its newly-formed Motorised Infantry Battalion at Linton Military Camp on Friday 5 December, 2025. RNZDF photo.
New Zealand News 

NZ Army creates new motorised infantry battalion

07/12/202507/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1184 Views 1 Comment

A newly-formed unit of the New Zealand Army, Ngāti Tūmatauenga, was formally called to attention this week. CAPTION: Ngāti Tūmatauenga,

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Editor's Vlog 

Dodgy door joinery

06/12/202506/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 714 Views 1 Comment

My little back-room space in the basement is shaping up nicely – especially since it started out as a nondescript

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The Hanwha Redback Infantry Fighting Vehicle, above, and the Rheinmetall Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle, below, have been delivered to Defence to support test and evaluation activities conducted as part of the Land 400 Phase 3 Risk Mitigation Activity.
Letters to the Editor 

Infantry fighting vehicles displace core armour roles

05/12/202506/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 611 Views 2 Comments

A series of five articles was published by CONTACT during October and November 2018, titled “Armour in the Australian Army:

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Australian Army and Indonesian National Armed Forces soldiers, supported by an M1A1 Abrams tank, conduct a combined joint-force entry operation as part of Exercise Keris Woomera at Banongan Beach, Indonesia. Photo by Leading Seaman Rikki-Lea Phillips.
Letters to the Editor 

How will the new history of RAAC depict 2023/24?

02/12/202502/12/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 592 Views 0 Comments

The first volume of the RAAC history was written by the late Maj Gen R N L Hopkins, CBE. It

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A Centurion tank of C Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment, moving through the jungle in South Vietnam. June 1971. Australian War Memorial file FOD/71/0305/VN.
Letters to the Editor 

How is change brought about?  By rightfulness and persistence!

30/11/202530/11/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 623 Views 0 Comments

Will 1st Armoured Regiment become a tank regiment again?  Will it resume its rightful place as part of Australia’s only

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Editor's Vlog 

My bunker backroom

30/11/202530/11/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 591 Views 1 Comment

The little space at the back of the bunker – behind the ‘shield walls’ – is shaping up nicely. Instead of

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RNZAF Combat Operations Support Squadron support Exercise Tuhono Rangi at RNZAF Base Woodbourne, an exercise in support of visiting Luftwaffe A400M. NZDF image supplied.
Europe New Zealand News 

Luftwaffe exercise delivers benefits for New Zealand

27/11/202527/11/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 746 Views 0 Comments

Exercise Tūhono Rangi, a landmark joint training operation with the German air force (Luftwaffe), has wrapped up for the New

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An Aussie soldier writing in the field. Cropped from larger image by Corporal David Cotton.
Letters to the Editor 

CONTACT supports 1 Armd Regt’s reinstatement campaign

27/11/202527/11/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 444 Views 0 Comments

Between 22 April and 25 November 2025 (when these statistics were compiled), CONTACT published 81 letters related to the demise of

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Descendants of William Henry Belpitt who attended his commemorative service at Rookwood Cemetery. Photo courtesy of Julie Rusten (Friends of Rookwood).
Lest We Forget 

William Henry Belpitt MOH commemorated at Rookwood

27/11/202527/11/2025 Posted by Brian Hartigan 741 Views 0 Comments

His early years may have been spent in humble beginnings, a street urchin finding trouble where none was to be

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