A Wedgetail, the most powerful surveillance airplane in the skies, goes down—hard. Miranda and her team race to investigate, unwittingly placing themselves in the crosshairs. From the world’s greatest shipping chokepoint at the Strait of Malacca to the Malaysian wilderness, from the Australian Outback to the halls of power in Southeast Asia, survival becomes the greatest challenge. Can Miranda and her team unravel the crisis before it destroys global shipping and kills them all? "Miranda is utterly compelling!" - Booklist, starred review “Escape Rating: A. Five Stars! OMG just start with Drone and be prepared for a fantastic binge-read!” -Reading Reality

Andy is fascinated by wedgetail eagles. He lies on the shed roofs of his family’s farm and watches them cruising about on their huge wings, high above him in the sunlit air. They are like skaters skimming on ice, gliding in vast arcs and circles. One day a ranger brings him an orphaned eaglet so tiny that it seems unlikely to survive. WEDGETAIL is the story of Andy’s struggle to save it, to nurse it and feed it - and to protect it from danger, human and otherwise.

Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force tells the story of the RAAF’s first one hundred years by describing the acquisition, operation, and service record of the multitude of aircraft types flown by the RAAF. The 176 aircraft types include the flimsy wood and canvas aircraft typical of World War I, through the technological advances during and after World War II, to modern fifth-generation, complex aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II. Even before its formation Sir Richard Williams, the Father of the RAAF, had decided to employ an alpha-numeric numbering system to identify and account for each aircraft in service. This system started with A1, A2, A3 etc as each type of aircraft came into service. Each individual aircraft within each series was identified as A1-1, A1-2 and so on and the aircraft serial became known colloquially as the ‘A-number’. With some exceptions over the century since the A-number system started, aircraft entered RAAF service in broadly the sequence of the A-numbers, and so this book is intended to assist in charting the 100-year history of the RAAF by listing aircraft operated in A-number sequence, rather than by listing them by role (such as Fighter, Bomber, Maritime, Trainer, Transport etc) or alphabetically by name or by manufacturer. The inclusion of a comprehensive Index and the Quick Reference Guide to aircraft by role is intended to facilitate the location of the entry for any specific type of aircraft for those who may not already know its A-number. Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force is a must have for all those who have served in the RAAF, those with a passion for military aviation and aircraft in general, and the broader members of the public wishing to gain an appreciation of the Royal Australian Air Force in its centenary year.

The authors, using the techniques in Winning the Big Ones, have helped their clients win over $286 Billion in contract awards with an 86%% win rate. This book describes how capture teams pursue and win large contracts. Learn how top performing capture teams pursue and win large contracts: - Structure your business acquisition process like the top performers - Select the best few opportunities - Develop a win strategy that differentiates your solution on those attributes most important to the customer - Establish the Price-to-Win to bid the highest price possible and win - Collect intelligence and conduct competitive analysis - Influence the customer to shape the acquisition to improve your position - Pre-sell your solution - Organize and staff the capture team - Craft persuasive win themes and proofs of benefits - Close the sale with effective negotiation strategies. All of these techniques are illustrated with a hundreds of real world examples.

Paper-piece New York Beauty blocks inspired by Australian wildlife With its radiant beams and calculated curves, the New York Beauty quilt has always been a showstopper. Now you can make your own jaw-dropping Australian wedding quilt with Cinzia White, the esteemed designer behind The Storyteller’s Sampler Quilt. This queen-size bed quilt boasts 54 gorgeous New York Beauty blocks named for and inspired by Australian wildlife. Don’t be afraid to begin your foundation paper piece journey, as the author’s clear instructions will guide you and help you feel truly accomplished. A true creative journey! Sew the New York Beauty quilt of your dreams Stitch 54 unique blocks that pay homage to Australian wildlife Learn to foundation piece a queen-size quilt by machine

Human-Machine Shared Contexts considers the foundations, metrics, and applications of human-machine systems. Editors and authors debate whether machines, humans, and systems should speak only to each other, only to humans, or to both and how. The book establishes the meaning and operation of "shared contexts between humans and machines; it also explores how human-machine systems affect targeted audiences (researchers, machines, robots, users) and society, as well as future ecosystems composed of humans and machines. This book explores how user interventions may improve the context for autonomous machines operating in unfamiliar environments or when experiencing unanticipated events; how autonomous machines can be taught to explain contexts by reasoning, inferences, or causality, and decisions to humans relying on intuition; and for mutual context, how these machines may interdependently affect human awareness, teams and society, and how these "machines" may be affected in turn. In short, can context be mutually constructed and shared between machines and humans? The editors are interested in whether shared context follows when machines begin to think, or, like humans, develop subjective states that allow them to monitor and report on their interpretations of reality, forcing scientists to rethink the general model of human social behavior. If dependence on machine learning continues or grows, the public will also be interested in what happens to context shared by users, teams of humans and machines, or society when these machines malfunction. As scientists and engineers "think through this change in human terms," the ultimate goal is for AI to advance the performance of autonomous machines and teams of humans and machines for the betterment of society wherever these machines interact with humans or other machines. This book will be essential reading for professional, industrial, and military computer scientists and engineers; machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) scientists and engineers, especially those engaged in research on autonomy, computational context, and human-machine shared contexts; advanced robotics scientists and engineers; scientists working with or interested in data issues for autonomous systems such as with the use of scarce data for training and operations with and without user interventions; social psychologists, scientists and physical research scientists pursuing models of shared context; modelers of the internet of things (IOT); systems of systems scientists and engineers and economists; scientists and engineers working with agent-based models (ABMs); policy specialists concerned with the impact of AI and ML on society and civilization; network scientists and engineers; applied mathematicians (e.g., holon theory, information theory); computational linguists; and blockchain scientists and engineers. - Discusses the foundations, metrics, and applications of human-machine systems - Considers advances and challenges in the performance of autonomous machines and teams of humans - Debates theoretical human-machine ecosystem models and what happens when machines malfunction

The dispatch of an Ottoman Army by Australian-led Imperial air power in the Wadi Fara on 21 September 1918 occurred just five years after the advent of military aviation in Australia. In 1914, the fledgling Australian air service operated the flimsy Bristol Boxkite; four years later it was flying the far more advanced Bristol F2B Fighter. This leap forward represented a profound progress in technology that has typified the technical development of aviation, particularly in Australia ever since. Ironically, on 21 September 2014, 96 years after the events of the Wadi Fara, Australian squadrons were again deployed to the same part of the world where they would remain for more than three years on operations against extremist terrorism. Armageddon and OKRA contrasts these events, a century apart, in the context of the development of Australian air power. The book tracks the history where Australia has maintained a balanced air service compelling high technical, logistics and engineering standards, and effective training and command and control systems, for more than 100 years. These processes were as applicable a century ago as they are today. By examining these operational events, the author establishes the connection that access to the technology associated with air power is intrinsically linked to Australia’s enduring foreign and defence policy – more so, that military power is a means to an end, and never an end unto itself.

The Last Cruise reunites Wes Hardin and Tully Cain, now members of VFA-143, the Ghostriders, as they take the Navys newest fighter, the F-35 Lightning, on its initial deployment, on board the nuclear aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln, CVN-72. The cruise gets off to a surprise beginning when the Lincoln Strike Group is tasked to the Caribbean after the shoot down of an American Airlines plane. Future encounters take place in the skies over the Gulf of Aden and the Black Sea before the carrier arrives in the Arabian Sea and commences operations in the turbulent skies over Afghanistan which presents its own unique set of challenges. The action continues non-abated almost until the Lincoln and her consorts return to their home port of Norfolk, Virginia.

As Australia withdrew from Vietnam in 1972, few in the Australian Defence Force, none the least those in the Royal Australian Air Force could foresee the immense change that would sweep across the Service. New and emerging international relationships, changing Australian social attitudes, and a growing sense of defence self-reliance would all impact how the RAAF contributed to the application of air power in the defence of the nation and in supporting Australia’s wider national interests. For the first time, Taking the Lead brings to the reader a comprehensive and authoritative study of how the RAAF matured over its third quarter century, how it met the challenges faced, and how it finally came of age, able to take the lead when asked. By 1996, plans were in place such that the RAAF was well on the way to becoming the world’s first fifth generation air force, by making a remarkable transition. This volume also dispels the myth that the RAAF did little in the latter part of the twentieth century but train. In fact, the RAAF was at the forefront of operations as wide afield as the Sub-Continent, the Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia. Then there was aid to the civil community as well as aid to those nations seeking help in wider Asia-Pacific region. Clever force restructuring for expeditionary operations amid the stress of downsizing by almost a third, meant that future operations in the twenty-first century were to be a success. Taking the Lead is not just about aircraft, bases and flying. It considers the strategic environment of the era, the factors that affected personnel and training, how the RAAF’s force structure advanced and how the RAAF managed its successes and failures. For those seeking to learn more about their air force, then this book is essential reading. Taking the Lead covers this vital part of the RAAF’s unfolding narrative, and perfectly illustrates how the RAAF remained true to its motto – Per Ardua ad Astra – Through Adversity to the Stars.