
Beaten Zone Venture Partners Announces First Capital Call Following Successful Fund Close
Press Release, For Immediate Release Brisbane, Thursday FEBRUARY 6, 2025 Brisbane, Australia – Beaten Zone Venture Partners (BZV), Australia’s specialist Defence technology venture capital firm, today announces its first capital call

It is no surprise that Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary wasn’t the usual National Security insider we’ve seen in recent times ⬇️
Pete Hegseth has been labeled as an unconventional pick given Defense Secretaries are usually Washington insiders or star rank generals in recent times. While he’s a US Army National Guard

Being Surprised by an adversary is one of the most enduring elements of warfare
Beaten Zone Venture Partners advisor Mick Ryan’s 2022 ‘War Transformed’ examined the war in the new era of great power rivalry unfolding in the 21st century: “In this new era,

North Korea is sending more troops and equipment to aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ⬇️
The War Zone has a great update on Ukraine intelligence reporting on North Korea sending significant amounts of additional self propelled and rocket artillery units. While the hermit kingdom can

We need to design a way of war that integrates the small, the smart and the many with existing high end platforms and equipment ⬇️
Center for a New American Security (CNAS) has a succinct report looing at immediate actions to improve the U.S. military, deter China and regain momentum in military power in the

There are few catalysts for innovation as powerful as War ⬇️
The first proxy War of Cold War II has hastened the evolution of warfare. Both Ukraine and Russia have mobilised all aspects of the state to raise and sustain military

How resilient is Australia should disaster or war disrupt our sea lanes? A war game has revealed the challenge we could face ⬇️
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is reporting on Exercise Catalyst, a scenario based war game the National Oil Supplies Emergency Committee conducted in 2019. Even with subsequent action taken to build

Access to the key commodities have long been reasons for competition and conflict. Spices, oil and now… semiconductor microchips. ⬇️
You may have heard of Nvidia, the Chips Act and that Taiwan is heavily involved in chip manufacturing. If not, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has a quick primer to

Just before Christmas the US Defense Department released the annual assessment of Chinese military power ⬇️
“In 2023, the PRC continued its efforts to form the PLA into an increasingly capable instrument of national power. Throughout the year, the PLA adopted more coercive actions in the

The West needs to be ready for modern war – masses of drones and a battlespace saturated with electronic warfare ⬇️
WIRED has an insightful article on the Invisible Russia-Ukraine Battlefield that we’ll post in the comments. This is a good read about the fight to attain and retain the innovation

Can sea drones influence the littoral the same way as they dominate the Black Sea? ⬇️
Just before Christmas Beaten Zone Venture Partners advisor Keirin Joyce, GAICD, CPEng snuck in an interesting op-ed published on Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Strategist site looking at the ADF’s

The Deputy Chief of Army is ready to engage in the contest of ideas ⬇️
Major General Chris Smith has published a special report with Australian Strategic Policy Institute that examines the Australian Army’s part to play in the focused force. He also considers the

“As a nation, we are in an undeclared state of emergency”⬇️
We’re a bit late to this insightful report from Palantir Technologies‘ Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar. Palantir Technologies is one of the leading Mil Tech challengers of the status quo

War rages in the Middle East & Ukraine – but the temperature is slowly rising around Taiwan ⬇️
Reuters is reporting that military exercises continue to push boundaries and increase size and scope. We’ll add a link to the full article in the comments: “Taiwan raised its alert

It is time for action and outcomes, not more ‘announceables’ and word salads
There is a lot of frustration in the Defence community right now. It is time for action and outcomes, not more ‘announceables’ and word salads. ⬇️ Reality Bites: Senate Estimates

Can you build a nation’s preparedness and resilience for conflict by ignoring it? ⬇️
“We live in uncertain times. Armed conflicts are currently being waged in our corner of the world. Terrorism, cyber attacks, and disinformation campaigns are being used to undermine and influence

Is the US–Australian Alliance ready to fight the next war? ⬇️
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has released a research project that examines whether our Alliance is future ready that we’ll post in the comments. ‘Alliance Future: Rewiring Australia and the

Are we falling foul to regency bias when it comes to preparing for the next war? ⬇️
The Lowy Institute ran a recent event with The Economist’s defence editor, Shashank Joshi and covered issues including the Ukraine war, the Middle East, China’s nuclear ambitions, tensions between China

“Trump hates free riders on US Military spending and US Military power.” ⬇️
The team over at Strategic Analysis Australia (SAA) have been doing some great work providing policy options and informing the public debate on Defence and National Security. In his latest

Trump 2.0 will ‘go live’ in a geopolitical context where war is raging
Australia spends ~2% of GDP on Defence. The USA spends 3.5%. That’s quite the favourable deal we’re getting via the US taxpayer ⬇️ The US people have spoken and last