{"id":24898,"date":"2016-02-26T10:54:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T23:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=24898"},"modified":"2016-02-26T13:56:26","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T02:56:26","slug":"army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/","title":{"rendered":"Army and the 2016 Defence White Paper: yes\u2026 but\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-24902 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg\" alt=\"Australian Army soldiers from 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, exercise the battalion's recently granted Freedom of Entry to the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, on 5 November 2015, as part of the battalion's 50th anniversary celebrations. *** Local Caption *** The Australian Army\u0092s 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR), conducted a Freedom of Entry parade through the city of Darwin on Thursday, 5 November 2015. Hundreds of Darwin locals lined the streets to watch around 400 soldiers from 5 RAR parade with vehicles, weaponry and its Sumatran tiger mascot, Quintus Rama, as part of the battalion's 50th anniversary celebrations. The Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove (Retd), AK, MC, a former member of the battalion, inspected the parade and addressed the soldiers, talking about 5 RAR\u0092s proud history, from its service back in Vietnam, to helping the Darwin community following Cyclone Tracy, and its more recent operational service in Iraq, Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Afghanistan. Originally established in 1965, 5 RAR served two tours of South Vietnam before it was reorganised and linked with the 7th Battalion to form the 5th\/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in 1973. In late-2006, the two battalions were reorganised and de-linked. The 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, again joined the Australian Army's order of battle in its own right. The 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, motto is \u0091Duty first\u0092.\" width=\"1191\" height=\"767\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1-205x132.jpg 205w, https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1-1024x660.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1191px) 100vw, 1191px\" \/><\/a>Read quickly, one could walk away satisfied with how the Government has dealt with Army\u2019s role and force structure in the recently released<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.defence.gov.au\/WhitePaper\/Docs\/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Defence White Paper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There are some<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.defence.gov.au\/WhitePaper\/Docs\/2016-Defence-Integrated-Investment-Program.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and frankly exciting additions to the force structure: Armed ISR unmanned aircraft, riverine patrol craft, replacement for the ARH, a new light deployable helicopter for Special Forces, a medium range air defence system and a long range rocket system. Notably, upgrade programs are included in the investment decisions to properly sustain the current force.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The retention of Phase 3 of LAND 400, the infantry fighting vehicle project, the upgrade of the tanks and the continuation of the protected vehicle programs, battlefield communications, the soldier systems and Phase 2 of LAND 400 will significantly improve Army.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the overall Integrated Investment Plan is predicated on each element of the plan rolling out on schedule and within budget. A slippage in either will place the Army component of the plan at particular risk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shipbuilding is for political and capability reasons very much at the forefront of the 2016 DWP. Any change in the budget and schedule for those ships would lead to the unavoidable consequence of the back end of the plan slipping or being cut.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of Army\u2019s new capabilities and their critically important\u2014and to date, neglected\u2014areas, such as the deployable battlefield logistics systems, are scheduled for well into the next decade. Chapter 4 of the DWP explicitly allocates 18% of the investment plan to the Land Warfare and Amphibious Warfare capability stream; this offers one small comfort in the new world of contestability, where words will be bullets. Paragraph 4.51 and 4.52 make the Government\u2019s vison of Army clear, albeit it\u2019s more the 2000 DWP than a vison shaped by the 2016 DWP tasks, increased threats and the operational experience of the last decade or so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To quote the DWP, \u2018\u2026the soldier is at the heart of the land capability\u2019. Para 4.51 goes on to make the point that the Government has invested a significant amount of money in the current soldier combat system and they will sustain it. Laudable\u2014there\u2019s no doubt that the Australian soldier is one of the best equipped soldiers on today\u2019s battlefield. The DWP continues by saying that the soldier will be supported by vehicles, aircraft, and logistics systems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frankly this isn\u2019t a vision for the Army we should expect in 2030, it\u2019s status quo at best. Certainly it isn\u2019t a part of the future ADF proclaimed by the Minister. Where\u2019s the description of the Land Force System where the soldier is at the centre of an integrated whole which will be fundamental to the Army and its ability to fulfil the Government\u2019s expectations beyond 2030?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s the \u2018but\u2019, and the real risk to Army in this DWP. Without a clear description of the modern land system\u2014especially its critical interdependencies\u2014any budget risk will flow like a magnet to the land warfare capability stream as individual elements of it are picked off to fit a changing budget envelope. Sadly, Army would then be in danger of reverting to a pre-Timor force, not the fully integrated land system needed to face the strategic challenges of beyond 2030. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Read quickly, one could walk away satisfied with how the Government has dealt with Army\u2019s role and force structure in the recently released Defence White Paper. There are some new and frankly exciting additions to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":24902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,488,1636,279],"class_list":["post-24898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australian-defence-force","tag-australian-army","tag-defence-white-paper-2016","tag-force-structure"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Army and the 2016 Defence White Paper: yes\u2026 but\u2026 | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Army and the 2016 Defence White Paper: yes\u2026 but\u2026 | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read quickly, one could walk away satisfied with how the Government has dealt with Army\u2019s role and force structure in the recently released Defence White Paper. There are some new and frankly exciting additions to ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-25T23:54:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-26T02:56:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"773\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Clifford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Clifford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":773,\"caption\":\"Australian Army soldiers from 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, exercise the battalion's recently granted Freedom of Entry to the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, on 5 November 2015, as part of the battalion's 50th anniversary celebrations. *** Local Caption *** The Australian Army\u0092s 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR), conducted a Freedom of Entry parade through the city of Darwin on Thursday, 5 November 2015. Hundreds of Darwin locals lined the streets to watch around 400 soldiers from 5 RAR parade with vehicles, weaponry and its Sumatran tiger mascot, Quintus Rama, as part of the battalion's 50th anniversary celebrations. The Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove (Retd), AK, MC, a former member of the battalion, inspected the parade and addressed the soldiers, talking about 5 RAR\u0092s proud history, from its service back in Vietnam, to helping the Darwin community following Cyclone Tracy, and its more recent operational service in Iraq, Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Afghanistan. Originally established in 1965, 5 RAR served two tours of South Vietnam before it was reorganised and linked with the 7th Battalion to form the 5th\/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in 1973. In late-2006, the two battalions were reorganised and de-linked. The 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, again joined the Australian Army's order of battle in its own right. The 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, motto is \u0091Duty first\u0092.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/\",\"name\":\"Army and the 2016 Defence White Paper: yes\u2026 but\u2026 | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-25T23:54:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-26T02:56:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/bb5d666c22ddd18638a78c3b7db103ff\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Army and the 2016 Defence White Paper: yes\u2026 but\u2026\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/bb5d666c22ddd18638a78c3b7db103ff\",\"name\":\"Michael Clifford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24e6c3bb5625a889c0a0fe5df86f771c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24e6c3bb5625a889c0a0fe5df86f771c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Michael Clifford\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/michael-clifford\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Army and the 2016 Defence White Paper: yes\u2026 but\u2026 | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Army and the 2016 Defence White Paper: yes\u2026 but\u2026 | The Strategist","og_description":"Read quickly, one could walk away satisfied with how the Government has dealt with Army\u2019s role and force structure in the recently released Defence White Paper. There are some new and frankly exciting additions to ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2016-02-25T23:54:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-02-26T02:56:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":773,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michael Clifford","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael Clifford","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/army-and-the-2016-defence-white-paper-yesbut\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/20151105RAN8504132_003-1.jpg","width":1200,"height":773,"caption":"Australian Army soldiers from 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, exercise the battalion's recently granted Freedom of Entry to the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, on 5 November 2015, as part of the battalion's 50th anniversary celebrations. *** Local Caption *** The Australian Army\u0092s 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR), conducted a Freedom of Entry parade through the city of Darwin on Thursday, 5 November 2015. Hundreds of Darwin locals lined the streets to watch around 400 soldiers from 5 RAR parade with vehicles, weaponry and its Sumatran tiger mascot, Quintus Rama, as part of the battalion's 50th anniversary celebrations. The Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove (Retd), AK, MC, a former member of the battalion, inspected the parade and addressed the soldiers, talking about 5 RAR\u0092s proud history, from its service back in Vietnam, to helping the Darwin community following Cyclone Tracy, and its more recent operational service in Iraq, Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Afghanistan. Originally established in 1965, 5 RAR served two tours of South Vietnam before it was reorganised and linked with the 7th Battalion to form the 5th\/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in 1973. In late-2006, the two battalions were reorganised and de-linked. 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