{"id":53398,"date":"2020-02-07T13:03:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T02:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=53398"},"modified":"2020-02-07T13:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T02:03:48","slug":"the-australian-defence-forces-presence-in-northern-australia-must-be-increased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-defence-forces-presence-in-northern-australia-must-be-increased\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australian Defence Force\u2019s presence in northern Australia must be increased"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

ASPI\u2019s \u2018The north and Australia\u2019s security<\/a>\u2019 program has just turned one. Over the past year, more than 30 pieces have been published under the banner of the program\u2019s \u2018North of 26\u00b0 south<\/a>\u2019 Strategist<\/em> series. Authors from an array of disciplines have explored the role of the north in the broader security of Australia and proposed some new ways of thinking about it.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, almost all the discussions I\u2019ve had about this work\u2014with politicians, policymakers, the media and other interested parties\u2014have involved questions about whether we\u2019ve got the right defence personnel numbers and the right capabilities in Australia\u2019s north.<\/p>\n

Such questions are unsurprising; the strategic importance of Australia\u2019s north to our defence has long been recognised by governments and policymakers (see here<\/a> for more detailed analysis). Indeed, as ASPI\u2019s Peter Jennings recently pointed out<\/a>, the value of Australia\u2019s north isn\u2019t lost on our friends or rivals either.<\/p>\n

Despite this shared understanding, Australia\u2019s policymakers have consistently struggled to develop a coherent long-term plan for the defence of the north and the role of the north in Australia\u2019s defence. To be fair, though, until recently there hasn\u2019t been any real urgency to get this thinking right.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, I\u2019ve spent some time discussing the Australian Defence Force\u2019s reduction in troop numbers and capabilities in Australia\u2019s north (see here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>), with a focus on the army. I\u2019ve sought to highlight that such changes haven\u2019t been accompanied by a clear strategic narrative, and often fly in the face of the prevailing strategic context.<\/p>\n

There would be few in uniform who would disagree with the premise that the army\u2019s decisions on force posture in northern Australia ought to align with broader defence policy and be guided primarily by the threat context and mission requirement. However, as successive defence white papers have illustrated, even with these well-defined parameters, reaching a consensus on the army\u2019s northern force posture has been difficult because of the number and variety of divergent perspectives.<\/p>\n

Strategic geography remains important, in terms of both traditional security responses and geopolitical messaging.<\/p>\n

While it may be easier and cheaper to raise, train and sustain capabilities in Australia\u2019s southern states, the army\u2019s presence in the north is an important part of our strategic and defence posture. Arguably, the army should be increasing its presence in northern Australia to match America\u2019s commitment to regional security: the presence of the US Marine Corps, and the accompanying \u2018enhanced air cooperation\u2019 initiative in Darwin.<\/p>\n

Dots on a map marking deployments or bases can have substantial strategic importance, even if they don\u2019t directly contribute to operational capability. The US government\u2019s increased use of Australia\u2019s north for individual and collective training illustrates this point particularly well.<\/p>\n

Army chief Rick Burr\u2019s 2018 command statement<\/a> declares that the army \u2018is a versatile, decisive force, offering broad utility for the nation\u2019. His futures statement, Accelerated warfare<\/em><\/a>, argues that the army must \u2018own the speed of initiative to outpace, out-manoeuvre and out-think conventional and unconventional threats\u2019.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve noted in the past<\/a>, it\u2019s reasonable to conclude that in a future conflict the north of Australia, and more specifically Darwin, could well become the ADF\u2019s forward operating base or a stepping stone to another location in the Pacific or in the first or second island chain.<\/p>\n

Deploying army capabilities from bases in southern Australian to northern Australia takes time. It also requires the right enabling functions to be in place\u2014or be rapidly established\u2014in northern Australia. Northern Australia in general, and the bases in Darwin and Tindal more specifically, will provide important geostrategic advantages to an army striving to own the speed of initiative.<\/p>\n

Whether the army is projecting into the region in support of its partners or undertaking humanitarian and disaster relief activities, the minimum mission requirement is increasingly a battalion battlegroup. These agile and lethal battlegroups must be capable of deploying by air or sea and supporting themselves logistically for up to 14 days.<\/p>\n

Given the strategic importance of Australia\u2019s north, at least two, if not three, such battalion battlegroups are needed in Darwin. The army\u2019s current force posture in Darwin falls well short of the mission requirement.<\/p>\n

The Department of Defence is currently engaged in a \u2018re-assessment of the strategic underpinnings of the 2016 Defence White Paper\u2019. Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has indicated<\/a> that the review will be finalised early this year; hopefully it will address the question of what the army\u2019s force posture in northern Australia ought to be. Darwin needs a greater army presence, not a smaller one. But the first step in quantifying the ADF\u2019s force posture in northern Australia ought to involve the development of a single shared policy position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASPI\u2019s \u2018The north and Australia\u2019s security\u2019 program has just turned one. Over the past year, more than 30 pieces have been published under the banner of the program\u2019s \u2018North of 26\u00b0 south\u2019 Strategist series. Authors …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":310,"featured_media":53401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,279,1005],"class_list":["post-53398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australian-defence-force","tag-force-structure","tag-northern-australia","dinkus-north-of-26-south"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Australian Defence Force\u2019s presence in northern Australia must be increased | 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\/the-australian-defence-forces-presence-in-northern-australia-must-be-increased\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Australian Defence Force\u2019s presence in northern Australia must be increased | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ASPI\u2019s \u2018The north and Australia\u2019s security\u2019 program has just turned one. 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