{"id":53526,"date":"2020-02-13T15:13:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T04:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=53526"},"modified":"2020-02-14T18:30:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T07:30:28","slug":"the-australian-defence-forces-domestic-role-part-1-how-much-does-it-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-australian-defence-forces-domestic-role-part-1-how-much-does-it-do\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australian Defence Force\u2019s domestic role (part 1): How much does it do?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Australian Defence Force has performed valuable services<\/a> in the 2019\u201320 bushfire emergency. More than 5,000 personnel have been involved in a wide range of tasks, both on the front line and in logistics and other supporting roles. There have been many accounts of the ADF bringing not just capability, but reassurance to communities threatened and impacted by bushfires.<\/p>\n

With the growing consensus that such disasters will be the new normal, there will be much discussion and analysis, both in public and behind closed doors, about what the Department of Defence\u2019s role should be in responding to them. Any discussion about roles will require discussion about funding. As the old saying goes, a dollar can only be spent once, so increasing the ADF\u2019s capability to undertake domestic tasks will require either a reduction in other areas or additional funding\u2014unless Defence can achieve the nirvana of developing dual-use capabilities that can perform both high-end warfighting and low-end support tasks equally well without additional cost. That has always been and will remain an elusive goal.<\/p>\n

As those discussions ramp up, it\u2019s helpful to consider what portion of Defence\u2019s budget\u2014and consequently its effort and capability\u2014is already devoted to what it calls \u2018national support tasks\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Defence doesn\u2019t acquire capabilities dedicated to activities such as disaster relief; they\u2019re not a \u2018force structure determinant\u2019, to use Defence\u2019s term. But department has high-level strategic cover from the government for things like disaster response. Under the first of its three strategic defence objectives\u2014\u2018A secure, resilient Australia, with secure northern approaches and proximate sea lines of communications\u2019\u2014the 2016 white paper<\/a> states: \u2018Our interest in a secure, resilient Australia also means an Australia resilient to unexpected shocks, whether natural or man-made, and strong enough to recover quickly when the unexpected happens.\u2019 While the recent focus has been on the bushfire crisis (which was both natural and man-made), Defence has a long record of responding to other kinds of natural disasters at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

Defence also acquires and sustains capabilities that are used by other agencies for tasks other than warfighting. For example, it provides patrol boats to the multi-agency Maritime Border Command<\/a> to address civil maritime security threats. It also conducts services on behalf of the nation that are not entirely military. The Australian Hydrographic Office<\/a>, a part of the department, is responsible for providing Australia\u2019s national charting service, for example.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not quite correct to say that Defence solely prepares for war and only supports tasks other than warfighting on a \u2018come as you are\u2019 basis. But, generally, when it performs disaster response it is using capabilities acquired for other purposes.<\/p>\n

Defence\u2019s spending on actual operations performing \u2018national support tasks\u2019 in Australia is a very small part of its budget. The defence budget is divided into two main parts called outcomes. The bigger outcome by far is organisations that develop and sustain military capabilities. A much smaller part of the budget\u2014roughly 2%\u2014goes to the other outcome, which is using those capabilities on operations.<\/p>\n

A small piece of that smaller part is for the Defence contribution to national support tasks in Australia. Over the past five years, the contribution has been under 0.2% of the total budget, highlighted in table 1 (although it will likely be bigger this year due to the bushfire emergency).* This includes contributions to border protection under Operation Resolute and support to major events such as the Commonwealth Games and ASEAN summits.<\/p>\n

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But Defence has a lot of potential capability it can supply if called on. Defence\u2019s reporting doesn\u2019t say how much of the much bigger outcome\u2014namely, its organisations that develop and sustain capability, which include the three services\u2014can be used for national support tasks. But we can get a rough idea by looking at the top 30 acquisition projects and top 30 sustainment products reported in the portfolio budget statements and annual report. The top 30s don\u2019t include everything, but they cover the bulk of Defence\u2019s capability spend.<\/p>\n

Over the past six years, Defence has spent $59.2 billion between the top 30 acquisition projects ($34.3 billion) and top 30 sustainment products ($24.9 billion).<\/p>\n

To drill down further, I\u2019ve divided the projects and products into three categories (see here for the spreadsheets with all the detail<\/a>):<\/p>\n