Intelligence; Optimised Podcast

What happens when the officer commanding Australia's forward-deployed surgical unit runs the same mission on her own time - faster, leaner, and without a joint logistics unit behind her?<br /><br />Wing Commander Dr...

Australia feeds the region, but the mineral that makes that possible is almost entirely imported, processed offshore, and held in supply chains that break on a predictable cycle.<br /><br />In this episode of...

Australia commissioned more grid-scale battery storage in 2025 than the previous eight years combined. Most of those systems have no cell-level visibility, no long-term support plan, and no answer to what happens when...

Australia commissioned more grid-scale battery storage in 2025 than in the previous eight years combined. Most of those systems provide two to three hours of support. In January this year, the worst heatwave in six...

Australia's agricultural sector faces simultaneous failures in fuel, fertiliser, and labour inputs. This is Part 2 of Todd Crowley's conversation with Kate Banville — journalist, former soldier, and reporter who covers...

The season is already at risk — Australia's fuel is nearly gone and the fertiliser that should have arrived from the Gulf hasn't.<br /> <br />---<br /><br />Australia exports food to three times its population. Right...

The season is already at risk — Australia's fuel is nearly gone and the fertiliser that should have arrived from the Gulf hasn't.<br />---<br />Australia exports food to three times its population. Right now it cannot...

The headlines say Iran lost. The insurance market disagrees.<br /><br />Lloyd's of London has withdrawn cover from the waterway. Maersk has suspended bookings. 170 container ships are sitting idle inside the Gulf right...

In Part 2 of the episode, Todd Crowley and Colin Gunn unpack how a 28-hour Group 3 platform, the Raider 330, plugs into a wider Indo-Pacific security fabric. They walk through how persistent ISR, sovereign cloud and...

Colin Gunn argues the centre of gravity for maritime security has shifted. Coast Guards, border agencies, fisheries, aviation and SAR authorities already maintain daily sovereign presence across the Indo-Pacific. They...

Part 2 of this Intelligence Optimised episode goes from “carbon is everywhere” to “carbon decides who holds power” - in energy, defence, health and the wider Indo-Pacific.<br /><br />Todd Crowley continues the...

Advanced carbon is one of the quiet foundations of modern capability - running through batteries, sensors, drones, soldier systems, grid storage and data centres. More than 90 per cent of it comes from China. Part 1 of...

Young Australian men are carrying more isolation, welfare reliance and aimless grind than many leaders realise - and that has direct consequences for workforce readiness and national resilience. In this episode of...

Australia is moving fast to secure its digital sovereignty through new AI “factories” and national-scale data centres. In this episode of Intelligence Optimised Podcast, Todd Crowley speaks with Pete McCrystal about the...

In part 1 of this two-part conversation, Intelligence Optimised explored practical sovereignty — how Australia can’t be fully sovereign in technology, but can be far more prepared. Todd Crowley and Swaroop Tulsidas...