The Australian Amphibious Force (AAF)

Thanks to T13 for the pic!

Weird shit is going on with the "social media" approach that the Aussies and USMC are taking with regard to getting the word out about their steps to field an amphibious force.

They're having USMC Combat Cameramen post pics of their forces instead of trumpeting it on their own pages.

Plain fucking weird.

But put that aside.  Check out the caption to the above pic....

The Australian Amphibious Force (AAF) is a scalable joint force comprising personnel and equipment from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Australian Army to form a task-organised landing force that can conduct specified exercises or operations. It is commanded by the Commander Amphibious Task Force (CATF) in close cooperation with the Commander Landing Force (CLF) to provide a range of amphibious response options to operational crises and disasters.

The amphibious capability is a vital component of Australia's Maritime Defence strategy and represents a significant investment in advancing the ADF's operational capability. HMAS Canberra (LHD) is one of the largest ships ever built for the (RAN), and provides the ADF with one of the most capable and sophisticated air-land-sea amphibious deployment systems in the world.

The SEA Series of exercises is where the ADF generates and certifies its joint amphibious forces. These activities occur annually and comprise personnel and equipment from across the ADF and Other Government Agencies. The SEA Series is vital to the continued generation of a high readiness amphibious capability.

The Amos disease and his minions still roam the halls of HQMC.

That little ditty is straight from the playbook they're selling.  This of course points to the much bigger problem.

The USMC and now the Aussies are building forces that are designed for COIN and small wars.  Anything bigger and they're gonna get rolled.  The problem with that?  Terrorists have evolved and are now looking like nation state armies.  Small unit raids and quasi Special Ops type footprints will not work.

I won't even touch on the drama that will ensue when we eventually have to cross swords with the Chinese.

Frustration is high.

I'm not impressed with what the Aussies are doing.  They're too slow, their procurement of gear for their forces appear to be disjointed and they're lined up supposedly for their air force to fight the big fight while building an Army and Navy lined up for small scale warfare only.

They won't survive and will be a liability, not asset in the coming fight.