Overview

The Search for Tactical Success: An Operations Research Analysis of Commonwealth Military Campaigns This groundbreaking study applies Operations Research to examine Commonwealth military operations during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation (1963-66) and compares them with Australian forces’ experience in Vietnam. Drawing on extensive data, it uncovers the complexities of asymmetrical warfare, tactical evolution, and the impact of intelligence and fire support.  Offering fresh insights into counterinsurgency tactics, enemy dynamics, and soldier experiences, Counterinsurgency in South-East Asia challenges traditional narratives and deepens our understanding of jungle warfare in the Cold War era.

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9781761452925

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Andrew T Ross was an Operations Research Analyst with Defence Science between 1973 and 1992. Because of his background in military history and political science, he was asked by the Commonwealth Department of Supply to do a study of the lead-times for the construction of Australian government munitions factories in World War Two. Further studies of Australian casualty and ammunition usage rates were completed for the Australian Army. In 1986, Ross explored further what he had learnt about Australian munitions production and completed a PhD at UNSW, ADFA. This led to the book Armed and Ready: The Industrial Development and Defence of Australia 1900-1945, which was published by the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Technology, and the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1995. This was expanded into two volumes in 2020 to become The Great Power Struggle for Australia 1900-1945 published by Amazon.  Ross left the Department of Defence in 1992, and retired to Northern NSW where he spent, with his wife, the first years physically building several houses, many sheds, and replanted much rainforest. Around 2000, Ross was approached by Defence Science to do further studies of Australian and British operations in Southeast Asia. This eventually resulted in several books including The Search for Tactical Success: An analysis of Australian Task Force Combat Operations (CUP 2015 with Hall and Griffin), and Mine Warfare: 1st Australian Task Force’s Struggle for South Vietnam (Big Sky Publishing 2021). 

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