Australia's amphibious force is operational...

via USNI News.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is nearing full operational capability of its amphibious force, after a six-year effort to turn an Army battalion into the heart of a joint-service expeditionary capability akin to the U.S. Marine Corps.

Despite being an island itself, and having only islands as its closest neighbors, the ADF never set up a dedicated amphibious force. As part of an effort to modernize its military, though, Australia decided in 2011 to turn its 2nd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR) into a permanent pre-landing force, with other Army units rotating through annually to serve as the ground combat element on the ADF’s three-ship Amphibious Ready Group.

After years of planning, reorganizing and training, the commander of the ADF’s Deployable Joint Force Headquarters has certified that the amphibious force is ready for operations, after using this summer’s Talisman Saber 2017 exercise as a final certification event. All that remains is for the Chief of Navy to sign off on that recommendation, certify that the three amphibious ships are deployable, and declare the force fully operational.

Story here. 

Serious question.  We always here about "certification" events.  Has anyone at anytime ever heard of a "certification" event being failed?

I would love to hear about it if you have.  As things now stand I view them as a bullshit statement designed to please the civilian leadership.

As far as Australia is concerned, I'm still not quite sure what 2 RAR is.  They talk about them being a pre-landing force but they seem seriously lacking.

I'll hold off till I hear more about what they're actually being asked to do but from the article it sounds like they have a boat company with Snipers doing the job.

That's pretty weak sauce to justify buying two Canberra Class LHDs to support.