Admiral Tim Barrett, Royal Australian Navy (ret.), former Chief of Navy and current strategic advisor for SPA Australia, and Arthur “Trip” Barber III, U.S. Navy Senior Executive Service (ret.), former Navy Senior Analyst and current chief analyst at SPA, collaborated on an article titled “Australia’s navy needs operations research to navigate the future”, which was published in Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Strategist magazine. 

Recognizing that new Naval vessels “are being designed in the digital age, from concept through build to sustainment,” the authors identify the impacts Operations Research (OR) can have on force development. 

Use of OR can revolutionize how the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) acquires, maintains and sustains its Fleet– everything from joint force development and acquisition program support to lifecycle maintenance and operating costs control. 

To use OR systematically now and into the future, VADM Barrett and Mr. Barber also discuss how the RAN can start to grow an OR workforce.  With trained OR personnel, both mathematically skilled and mission experienced, the RAN will be able to trust in “decisions based on analysis that is both operationally sound and analytically rigorous.”

The full article, published by ASPI’s The Strategist magazine, can be found here:  https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/australias-navy-needs-operations-research-to-navigate-the-future/