Nation falls short on services
Defence numbers in firing line as report warns ‘we’re not fit for purpose’
More men and women are marching out of the Australian Defence Force than are joining, with numbers failing to reach “critical” targets needed to swell the ranks to their biggest levels since the Vietnam War.
And despite being an island nation reliant on maritime defences, our navy has less firepower today than it did 30 years ago; we only have weapon and munition stockpiles to survive just one week of conflict; and there are claims the Defence bureaucracy is at war with itself.
On Wednesday it will be 12 months since the release of the Defence Strategic Review that warned our defences were not fit for purpose as the nation faced its most challenging security outlook in 80 years.
Last year Defence Minister Richard Marles said he was due to receive a review into the Navy’s surface combat fleet, with a government response thereafter made “in pretty short shrift” – but no response has been forthcoming. The continued delay is the least of the ADF’s issues.
Month on month more troops are quitting than are being recruited; personnel shortages are seeing ships going out to sea less frequently; outdated army armoured vehicles are not fit for conflict and delays in signing off new weapons purchases is seeing the local defence manufacture and supply industry in free fall.
Defence experts warn new top shelf acquisitions are decades away from being realised and missile stockpiles are so depleted, the country could not withstand a serious action for more than a week.
“We do need to be moving at a faster pace and we will,” Mr Marles has said.
This year Australia was ranked 16 in the top 50 strongest militaries in the world and 13th in military spending with an annual budget of about $53 billion.
But if Australia fell into war tomorrow, could the ADF cope?
“The short answer is no,” former defence and intelligence official Dr Marcus Hellyer, now head of research at Strategic Analysis Australia, said.
He said traditionally Australian defence has only ever geared towards preparing to go to wars of choice, but now it was trying to do that as well as the possibility of defending its border sovereignty.
“We can’t even send a small contribution away to wars of choice, like to the Red Sea for the Houthis, can’t send a warship because we either don’t have anything available or they are not equipped to deal with the kind of threats that they would be facing,” Dr Hellyer said.
ADF full time strength now sits at about 57,200. Separation rates are running at 10.2 per cent, a drop from 11 per cent last year, and with recruitment only achieving just over 40 per cent of its targets, there are suggestions a new reduced goal could be made soon.
Currently Australia spends 2 per cent of GDP on defence and the figure is expected to increase in the Budget this May