Australia
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has been badly caught out by events in the South Pacific and is only now moving to rectify the situation. The Australian Defence Force is made up of 70,000 regulars and around 27,000 reservists who are being af forded an increasingly integrated role.
At 32,000, the army is the largest ele ment. It is organised around a Field Force Command and seven Military Districts: the Field Force consists of one infantry di vision of three under-strength, two-bat talion brigades. This is supported by one armoured regiment, one reconnaissance and one APC regiment and three artillery regiments (one medium and two field).
There are also field, construction and sur vey engineer regiments, two signals regi ments, six independent squadrons, one Special Air Service Regiment and three transport regiments one air support, seven supply battalions and an Army Aviation Corps of one aviation regiment, five independent squadrons and an avia tion school.
The army is being re-equipped with new medium and light artillery, new RBs -70 surface-to-air missile systems and Si korsky helicopters for added mobility.
The 15,700-strong navy is organised into a Fleet and Support Command and six naval area commands. Plans are un derway to relocate half of the fleet to West ern Australia to provide a two ocean capability.
The fleet is made up of six Oberon class submarines, three destroyers and nine frigates. There are 20 patrol craft, two mi nehunters and six amphibious vessels, half of which are in reserve. This is supported by one heavy amphibious transport ves sel, one destroyer tender, a former ocean ferry used for training and logistic sup port, one replenishment tanker and three marine science survey ships.
The Fleet Air Army has seven armed helicopters but no combat aircraft. The navy presently has two FFC 7 frigates, four Bay class catamarans and six Sikorsky S -7082 ASW helicopters on order, along with eight new Australian-built conventional submarines and six new light patrol frig ates under a joint procurement program with New Zealand.
The Royal Australian Air Force has 22,800 on strength and can field 148 com bat aircraft. It is made up of two FGA/Re connaissance Squadrons equipped with F -111s and three interceptor squadrons equipped with Mirages. There are also two Maritime Reconnaissance squadrons flying the Orion P3c, six transport squad rons and four helicopter squadrons: one medium, with CH-47 Chinook, and three utility squadrons with UH-1B Iroquois.
Seventy-five new F-18 fighters are presently being deployed into the front-line interceptor squadrons and the existing fleet of MB-326H and CT4 trainers is to be replaced by new Pilatus PC-9 aircraft.
New S-70 helicopters are also on order but all helicopters except for the Chinook air craft will be transferred to the army this year. Work is also progressing on a new long-range over-the-horizon (OTH) radar system.
One squadron of Mirage fighters is presently deployed in Malaysia under the Five Power Agreement, with one infantry company on rotation. These are to be
withdrawn in favour of a rotating deploy ment by the new F-18 fighters when they come on stream.
Australia maintains a 135-man train ing unit and an engineer squadron in PNG, together with 100 advisors.
The ADF has recently undergone some far reaching reforms in command control and communications and is presently undergoing a major re-equipment pro gram. There are however problems of re tention and questions of the availability of funding for the new programs outlined in the Defence White Paper. Defence fund ing has been reduced from the three per cent annual increase envisaged by Dibb and endorsed by Defence Minister Kim Beazley down to minus one per cent, while the time-frame has steadily been extended from five to 10 then, and now 20 years.