Defence Update

This review, under the guidance of the Assistant Chief of the Defence Force (Development), Major General John Sanderson, and the First Assistant Secretary, Force Development and Analysis, Mr Martin Brady reporting to the steering committee led by the Vice Chief of the Defence Force, Vice Admiral Alan Beaumont and the Deputy Secretary, Strategic and Intelligence, Dr Paul Dibb, came under close study during March by the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC). It was presented with detailed presentations and options.

According to some reports there was considerable and perhaps at times heated debate within the committee.

If the speculation at the time of writing is any way near accurate, the three armed services,Army andAir Force-making up the presently constituted Australian Defence Force will be substantially different in size and character in the coming years. The 68,000 strong ADF (Navy 15,700, Army 30,800 and Air Force 21,900) may be cut by some 10,000 or so, with the RAAF and theArmy the major “sufferers”.

Under the (Alan) Wrigley Report on “The Defence Force and the Community” released in June 1990, much greater numbers of Reservists (which he calls “militia”) would provide for the expansion of Australia’s military forces in times of emergency or war and provide for a better balanced force. This would mean a much greater involvement by the civilian community.

The Wrigley view, or a separate ADF view which has been in the making for some time and probably has been spurred on by the Wrigley Report, is certain to see acceptance of having a greater number of Reservists (Wrigley suggested 52,000 instead of the current 27,000 of which 23,500 are Army).

There will be acceptance too of the commercialisation or “contracting out” to private enterprise of many of the logistics and support functions in the ADF. The Navy is already fairly lean in this regard following the sale toAMECON of the Williamstown naval dockyard in Victoria in 1988, and the transfer of the Garden Island naval facility and dockyard in Sydney to the Commonwealth owned, but commercialised, Australian Defence Industries (ADI).

In effect this took some thousands of Defence/ Navy civilian employees off the public service payroll and made them available to private enterprise or Government Business Enterprises. But the Army and the Air Force still are considered to have too much “tail” to “teeth”, even though the argument of how Army and RAAF units deployed north or overseas are supported and maintained remains a contentious issue.

At the time of writing there was conjecture that about 5,000 Army regulars could be cut and more than that number of RAAF personnel would go eventually. The closure of bases, and even the disbanding of squadrons and units, has been a major talking point for some months. Some of those mentioned have even been combat formations.

At this juncture it has been difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff, but clearly there is apprehension in the ADF, especially the Army and the RAAF, as to the outcome. This is expected to come in the form of the definitive Ministerial statement by Senator Ray to Federal Parliament about mid May, unless the scope of the recommendations takes longer than planned, for Ministerial and Cabinet consideration is even talk that the Government may find the wholesale slashing of personnel is unpalatable, at least in the short term. It also needs to be recalled that the Government, which has linked itself to supporting United Nations peace-keeping efforts, has been warned that UN commitments may be necessary in the near future in four areas – the Sahara, the Persian Gulf (postwar), Cambodia and Bougainville (Papua New Guinea). The areas mentioned above are not the only trouble spotsin a relatively unstable world, whether it be in Europe,Africa, Asia or the Pacific, or Central and South America.

Still the Government, Department of Defence and the Australian Defence Force, backed by various reports and studies, appears bent on reducing the size of the permanent Armed Forces, although perhaps not quite to the same extent as military manpower cuts envisaged in the USA and Europe where 20-25% reductions were forecast prior to the Gulf War.

Some preliminary cuts in theADF already have been programmed under theDefence Logistics Redevelopment arrangements announced in June 1990 and then spearheaded by Major General John Grey, now Deputy Chief of the General Staff. The new warehousing strategy will change the way Defence Logistics will carry out its functions of providing effective support generally and also has a northern orientation should the ADF be involved in operations, particularly in northern Australia. Gradual reductions of almost 1,500 personnel are contemplated at this stage.

The Force Structure Review is understood to have put further emphasis on contracting out a wide range of support functions they be catering, base “housekeeping”, technical support and quite a few other services. We believe stores and aircraft depots have been closely examined to find ways of achieving greater manpower savings. At the end of the day, of course, it remains to be seen if contracting out really will provide a more efficient, cheaper way of providing maintenance and support services to the ADF.

But some experts say it would not be too difficult to eliminate some 3,000 military personnel jobs in regional and other support tasks.

Additional savings would be received,it is argued, because the cost of employing service personnel also includes regular postings which include the cost of removals and relocation.

Three Air Force Bases-Point Cook, Vic, “home” of the now 70 year old RAAF where basic flying training is carried out, Laverton, Vic which has a large aircraft stores depot, and Fairbairn, ACT from which helicopter training is carried out and the RAAF VIP Squadron (five Falcon 900s) operates-are thought to have been short-listed for possible closure.

It is difficult to imagine the political masters giving up having VIP aircraft based other than at Canberra, although it is possible the task could be given to private enterprise. In that case, as in other possible closures or restrictions, RAAF personnel could resign and be taken on by private contractors.

Airspace in the Melbourne/ Geelong region is becoming more crowded, and the planned development of Avalon Air field by ASTA will ultimately accentuate this. It is therefore contended in some quarters that basic flying training should be phased out at Point Cook and possibly relocated to Pearce, WA where advanced flying training is now conducted. There was also an earlier proposal under Australia-New Zealand Defence cooperation programs, that basic RAAF flying training might be transferred to New Zealand though this seems to have died a natural death.

Initial helicopter flying training, if shifted from Fairbairn, could go either to the Army Aviation base at Oakey, on the Darling Downs in Queensland, or to Garbutt base, Townsville where the new Black Hawks are based.

The major transport base at Richmond on Sydney’s north-west outskirts also has been mentioned as a possible casualty in the general pruning, but it would seem difficult to shift the 707, C-130 Hercules and Caribou squadrons which operate from there. Still it may be possible that the two Caribou squadrons Townsville and Richmond could be amalgamated.

“Contracting out” intermediate and depot level maintenance of the F-111 strike/ reconnaissance jets at Amberley; Qld could affect some 800-1,000 ground staff there.

Some experts suggest that savings might be made by mothballing say a dozen or so F/A-18Hornets. The three Hornet squadrons theoretically are each assigned 16 planes, but in more recent times are thought to have acquired additional aircraft which were listed as attrition reserves. Another factor is that the RAAF still remains short of qualified pilots. Hornets also are required for pilot conversion training by 2 Operational Conversion Unit at Williamtown, NSW.