Friday, April 01, 2011
Royal Australian Navy. A force without a spear.
The Australian Defense establishment and the Royal Navy in particular are to be congratulated on their procurement plans.
They are assembling a credible amphibious capability...but are missing the specialized force necessary to fully exploit new equipment coming online. Cross training with the US Marine Corps has demonstrated one thing. The Australian Defense establishment is missing a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to having a full spectrum force....
It lacks a Marine Corps. Having a battalion of Army Infantry cross trained to act in a naval role is short sighted and inadequate.
My modest proposal. Form a Battalion of Marines. The benefits will be incalculable and the risks are negligible.
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Alas expeditionary warfare is not a role that the Australian public would happily support, our maritime offense capabilities are usually seem as being need for peace keeping and disaster relief...
ReplyDeleteHonestly I couldn't see my country of 21 million raising a credible maritime strike force and really why would we need to?
well your country is about to have one of the most capable amphibs in the Pacific, it seems a shame not to be able to have the forces that fit it.
ReplyDeleteand besides..as the situation in Japan is illustrating...humanitarian missions are the province of amphibious forces more than any other (if you're talking about aiding a foreign country).
many won't like it but Air Forces in those situations show the flag, ships with Marines provide relief.
Do you have any evidence to support your assertion that the Australian Army is not capable of undertaking amphibious operations?
ReplyDeletei do.
ReplyDeletethey aren't properly equipped to conduct such an operation. an observer of any of the Pacific Rim Exercises would reveal this fact.
to be quite honest, the LST's that are currently operated by the Royal Navy aren't even being utilized to their fullest capabilities.
Depends on your definition of Marines. Australias Commando Rgt (2RAR) and the 'specialized' army infantry battalion (forgot which one that is), backed up by 'regular' hvy/mech army units are sufficient in their eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe army infantry can do the (USMC) 'shock troop' role and 2RAR the 'real' marine commando amphib missions - huge opposed beach assaults is not in the cards according to the ADF philosophy.
IIRC the Australian army operate the (LCU) landing craft as well, so in a sense the army runs amphib ops. Australia just don't has the resources to raise another battalion and has to make do what it has. Still not too shabby IMHO.
2nd Commando is a Special Forces Unit that does hostage rescue. counter terrorism.
ReplyDeletenot exactly the type of force thats going to have time to be doing Marine tasks.
The problem with that idea Sol, is the size of the Australian Army to support such a force. Our Navy has virtually experience whatsoever with land warfare, so it would have to be an Army generated force.
ReplyDeleteThen you have the problem that Army only maintains 7 regular battalions, each of about 650 troops.
How we are going to maintain a marine force on top of this is difficult to conceive without a significant increase in capability and funding and such is unlikely to be coming any time soon.
The current thinking with the Amphibs is that Army will be generating an Amphibious Ready Group - ARG, that will be provided on a rotational basis by all of the regular battalions, in a similar manner to the battalions and special forces maintaining an airborne Ready Group (helo or para as required) between them currently.
The ARG, will be based on a company plus of infantry (150+ infantry) attached to the 'online' LHD and supported with armour, artillery, engineers, combat support, aviation and special forces detachments.
This will provide Australia with a deployable force of about 350-400 troops permanently deployed with the ships for at least 3 months at a time and rotated between the battalions, with sufficient time to train and and conduct their workups prior to deployment, I would not be surprised to see NZ troops reglarly attached to this force to, to support the ANZAC 'rapid reaction' force for South Pacific and some South East Asia contingencies.
A Marine Corps would be better suited and more capable of course, but there simply aren't the resources at the present time in Australia, available to support such a capability.
Btw, 2Cdo Regiment is a special forces unit, but they are also required to maintain a company level 'airborne ready group' which they share with the 3rd Battalion RAR (Para).
I suspect in future they may be required to alternate between an 'airborne ready group' and an 'amphibious ready group' as operational circumstances dictate...
Regards
AD
wow AD,
ReplyDeletethat's going to be alot of empty ranks, unused vehicle space and empty flight decks if thats the total number of your forces. if that's all the troops you're going to deploy then why purchase such a ship?
an LPD from the Netherlands would have been more than sufficient. a smaller one at that.
Not so very empty, if one presumes that only one Canberra class will be available for operations at any given time, plus the likely attachment of international forces to any deployment and the planned expansion of the Australia regular army to 30,000.
ReplyDeletei'm not up on the NZ military but aren't they more of a coast guard and small and i mean really small army? they won't bring many combat troops and even less capability. adding support personnel to the mix i'd give them at most 50 troops.
ReplyDeleteno other nation in the Pacific would need to hitch a ride so the empty rack comment stands in my mind. an expansion of the Army to 30,000 troops would make the plan that Aussie Digger lined up doable but still a bit of a hardship on the troops.
those rotations will be coming almost back to back...you're talking once ever two years if they do 6 month pumps. cut it down to 3 month cruises and you're down to heading out every year.
New Zealand usually deploys a company plus, or did so anyways, as they only have two army infantry battalions.
ReplyDelete2RAR doesn't just do HRT/CT but also the COLT thing; Force Recon-style Coy/Plt missions preceding any operation, and 1RAR (Lt) and 3RAR (Abn) would form the nucleus of a BLT reinforced with the 6 M-1s and 22 IFVs etc.
The Canberra LHD can carry about 900 troops which would also have to include C3, log and spt crew - it get's awfully crowded awfully fast.
Sol, thatforce is intended to be the 'normal' complement, ie: the force carried upon the ship, irrespective of it's tasking. If a bigger op comes up a larger force could be carried.
ReplyDeleteAs your video shows, each LHD can basically carry an Australian mechanised battlegroup plus it's M113AS4's, supported by an M1A1 tank troop, artillery, engineers etc.
Such a force would only be emplyed for the largest of operations and the ARG I referred to earlier would be the normal 'peacetime' complement for the ship. Sufficient to conduct quite a large array of military taskings, but certainly well within the ships total capabilty.
The Kiwis normaly employ a company group on operations, but have deployed larger forces when required. They deployed a battalion + to Timor during Interfet for instance and while their forces may be small, they are fantastic operators and very valuable contributors, punching 'well above their weight' whenever they deploy their forces.
Regards,
AD
Solomon,
ReplyDeleteWill you please stop calling the Royal Australian Navy the 'Royal Navy'. Their is only one Royal Navy and as much as it has declined it will I assure you rise again and even in its degraded form can still pack a punch.
Apart from which hopefully Australia will soon be a republic then it can have the 'Republic of Australia Navy'. The sooner we in the UK are rid of the this country who are in any case 'upside down yanks' the better.
The best of luck with your new best friends,you will need them in the pacific area,but of course that is why you are courting them.
Apart from which they will need you even more in the not too distant future.
Given the somewhat isolated geography and benevolent neighborhood, Australia can afford to keep a small armed force relative to its landmass.
ReplyDeleteWith or without a "spear," a more pertinent question is: Can you afford to invest your resources elsewhere while remaining lightly armed? Aussie can.
P/s. Albeit smaller than USMC fix-wing fleet, RAAF Hornet pilots are known to drill holes on visiting USMC jet's platinum in mocked dogfights.
Airpower (and TLAM Block IV) rock.
ReplyDelete"Get Some: Before and After Shots of Air Strikes on Libyan Targets"
http://defensetech.org/2011/04/02/got-some-before-and-after-shots-of-air-strikes-on-libyan-targets/
michael,
ReplyDeleteyou're an arrogant, angry little bastard aren't you. have no fear i'm used to smacking down stupid mother fuckers..
i'll consider you still embarrassed because you were so fucking wrong when it came to the Harvest Hawk, but i digress. you can leave any time limp dick and no one will give a flying fuck.
get off my page you stupid fuck.
Well said!
ReplyDeleteWayne
Solomon, you should try to maintain a professional demeanor.
ReplyDeleteoh i try. but please understand that i'm not quite used to someone entering my house, spouting trash and then having the whole world expect a calm reasoned response.
ReplyDeletebut you're right. i really should