Dr Dayton McCarthy is the director of a specialist defence and national security research and analysis consultancy based in Brisbane. From 2005 to 2013, he served in the Australian Regular Army as an infantry officer in number of command, staff and instructional postings. This included operational deployments to East Timor, Solomon Islands and Iraq. He continues to serve in the Army Reserve and is Commanding Officer of the 9th Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment.

He is the author of The Once and Future Army: A History of the Citizen Military Forces, 1947-1974, The Battle of Maryang San and The Worst of Both Worlds: An Analysis of Urban-Littoral Combat and has written numerous journal articles and conference papers on military history and defence issues.