ADF chief warns Australia must be ready to launch combat operations from home

Australia’s Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston, says the nation must be prepared for the possibility of having to launch combat operations from its own soil — a significant shift in military thinking not seen since World War II. Speaking at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Defence Conference in Canberra on Wednesday, Admiral Johnston said Australia needed to “reconsider” how it thought about war, resilience and national preparedness. “Perhaps finally we are having to reconsider Australia as a homeland from which we will conduct combat operations,” he said. “That is a very different way — almost since the…