Australian Military/Defense News and Discussions

sandyj

Junior Member
Australia Plugs In to Pentagon Comms Satellite

Operational Wideband Global Satellite Communications Capability Obtained

(Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued June 3, 2008)

Greg Combet, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, today announced that following a successful operational test program, Australia is receiving operational capability from the Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) Communications system.

“This provides Australia with access to a world-leading communications capability in terms of coverage, operational flexibility and bandwidth,” Mr Combet said.

“Australia will incrementally receive more capability as satellites are added to the constellation leading to full capability in 2013.

“The Wideband Global Satellite Communications system supports wideband military satellite communications services to a diverse community of mobile, transportable, and fixed users.

“The system supports a variety of networks that include broadcast, hub-spoke, netted, and point-to-point connections,” Mr Combet said.

Access to this capability will enable the next generation of military capabilities, such as Air Warfare Destroyers, Amphibious Ships, Multi-mission Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Land Platforms to operate in a network centric environment.

“The capability is realised through a partnership with the US Department of Defense,” Mr Combet said.

“Under this partnership, Australia has funded one satellite plus associated ground infrastructure to extend the constellation to six satellites, with the US providing funds for the remaining five.

“This new partnership further strengthens the Australia-US alliance. In particular, it will enhance the interoperability between Australian and US defence forces,” Mr Combet said
 

flyzies

Junior Member
Isnt there already a thread about Australian military? Anyways, cant find that one so...

Australia losing its military advantage: defence expert

A conference in Canberra has been told Australia's military advantage in the Asia Pacific is coming to an end and the country needs to rethink its military structure.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute conference has heard from its director of operations and capability, Dr Andrew Davies, who says countries in Asia are acquiring more high end military equipment as their economies grow.

"Australia has over the last few decades had an economic advantage over the nations of Asia which we have used to build up a military advantage as well," he said.

"But with the economic growth we've been seeing in Asia, that means that countries are simultaneously both richer and internally more stable ... which means that they've turned their attention to buying high end military equipment which they haven't in the past because they've been more concerned with internal stability forces.

"So what that means from Australia's point of view is that the days where we've had a very clear advantage in terms of the equipment we have are coming to an end."

Submarine spending

Dr Davies says as a result, defence spending needs to be redirected.

He says if Australia is to maintain its advantage, it needs to focus more effort and expenditure on submarines rather than surface ships.

"The Australian Defence Force we have today looks remarkably like the Australian Defence Force that the Menzies Government put in place back in the 1960s in terms of the number of aircraft, ships and submarines," he said.

"I think we need to think very hard about those relativities and move towards an ADF that's structured to maintain its relative advantage in the region."

Dr Davies says there will be 40 new submarines in the region in the next decade as Asian countries move to acquire more equipment.

"One of the things that Australia has a glaring deficiency in is our ability to conduct anti-submarine warfare," he said.

"So as well as concentrating more on Australian submarines we need to do more to be able to counter other people's submarines."

Military structure

Dr Davies says although Australia's military structure was well suited to deal with Asia in the past, it is not well-equipped to deal with Asia in the future.

He says the structure of the Army needs to change.

"The Army tends to send Special forces - SAS and Commando units - to Coalition operations and I think we need to formally recognise that that's the most valuable thing the Army can contribute to alliance operations," he said.

"But we also need light weight army forces for stabilisation and peace-keeping operations in the South Pacific and local countries.

"So I think the Army could usefully move towards a two level structure."

While there are no impending threats to Australia, Dr Davies says if relations sour Australia will be in a more vulnerable position and reliant on its alliance with the United States.

However he says data show South East Asian nations are scaling back their defence spending as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product.

"Now the conventional wisdom is that, that tells you something about how they see their threat situation and so the picture's actually a pretty comfortable one - the nations of South East Asia are quite comfortable with the status quo," he said.

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Call to submerge our naval force

AUSTRALIA needs a larger and more potent submarine fleet armed with land-strike missiles and should consider a historic shift away from big surface warships.

In a new study, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute argues that the emerging build-up of navies throughout the region, which includes growing numbers of submarines and the deployment of supersonic sea-skimming missiles by Russia, China and India, is making surface ships more vulnerable.

ASPI's Andrew Davies says that rapidly evolving technologies are calling into question the survivability of warships such as the navy's $8billion air warfare destroyers, which will enter service from 2014.

"While the air warfare destroyers about to begin construction will provide a measure of protection against even the most sophisticated missiles, a simultaneous attack with multiple missiles has the potential to overwhelm the defences," he says in the study of Asian military trends and their implications for Australia.

Australia's technological edge in relation to its neighbours is increasingly being called into question and together with the rising maritime capabilities of larger powers, led by China and India, should dictate a major review of the existing force structure of the ADF, the study says.

"The defence white paper currently in development will need to factor our narrowing capability advantage into its calculus. Rather than simply perpetuating a force structure that has served us well for the last four decades, it may be time to think hard about change."

Dr Davies recommends the army should increase the size of the elite special forces, which would undertake future war-fighting in conjunction with allies, while other army units should specialise in stabilisation and assistance missions.

"The traditional combined arms approach of infantry, armour and artillery is less relevant for near regional stabilisation and assistance missions and has not proven to be required in recent coalition operations," he argues.

Dr Davies expressed confidence that Australia could not be directly threatened, in the conventional military sense, by any Southeast Asian state.

"While our near neighbours are acquiring newer and more sophisticated capabilities, the ability to project power across the sea-air gap to the north of Australia and defeat the ADF will remain beyond them for decades to come," he says.

The RAAF's planned combat force consisting of F/A 18 Super Hornets and the F-35 joint strike fighter were well placed to meet any regional challenge.

But Australia did not have such a clear-cut advantage in naval power and the RAN had an "Achilles heel" under water.

The navy's anti-submarine warfare capability was in poor shape, which, when faced with the proliferation of submarines in the region, could "seriously affect the freedom of action of the RAN's surface fleet".

Further afield, the great power relationships of the region were shifting after 50 years of stability.

"If the current growth patterns continue, our advantage will be further eroded. Access to advanced US technologies may keep us ahead of European- and Russian-sourced equipment, but the capability differential will narrow."

Dr Davies said Australia should not expect to be able to unilaterally defend itself against a major power.

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