Minister for Defence Stephen Smith today announced that he had received the final Report of the Australian Defence Force Posture Review.
The Minister commissioned the report in June 2011.
The Force Posture Review is addressing the range of present and emerging global, regional and national strategic and security factors which require careful consideration for the future. It is being undertaken by the Department of Defence and overseen by an expert panel comprising two of Australia’s leading national security experts, Dr Allan Hawke and Mr Ric Smith, both former Secretaries of the Department of Defence.
These strategic and security factors include:
- the rise of the Asia Pacific as a region of global strategic significance;
- the rise of the Indian Ocean rim as a region of global strategic significance;
- the growth of military power projection capabilities of countries in the Asia Pacific;
- the growing need for the provision of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief following extreme events in the Asia Pacific region; and
- energy security and security issues associated with expanding offshore resource exploitation in our North West and Northern approaches.
More broadly, the Review also examined logistics support requirements, training areas for large-scale and joint training exercises, demographic and economic factors, public communications strategies, and engagement with industry, particularly the minerals and petroleum resources industries in Australia’s North and West.
The Force Posture Review Report will feed into the 2014 Defence White Paper.
In January this year, the Minister released a progress report from the expert panel preparing the Defence Force Posture Review.
The progress Report points to the Asia Pacific Century as reinforcing the need for a force posture that can support operations in Australia’s Northern and Western approaches, as well as operations with our partners in the wider Asia Pacific region and the Indian Ocean Rim.
The progress report also outlined a range of thoughts and options on how the ADF could be better geographically positioned to respond in a timely way to Australia’s strategic and security demands.
The Force Posture Review outlines a range of options for consideration.
No decisions on such options will be made until they have been considered as part of the 2014 White Paper process.
The findings of the final report will be published in due course. The progress report is available HERE.