Australian Army: modernising Down Under By Ian Kemp
The Rheinmetall Boxer Cavalry Reconnaissance Vehicle (left) is in production to replace the GDLSCanada ASLAV (right). © Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence
The Australian Army is undergoing the most comprehensive modernisation in its history. Ian Kemp reports on the four pillars of the future armoured vehicle fleet. The past decade has seen a significant restructuring of the Australian Army in preparation for the delivery of a new fleet of armoured fighting vehicles over the next decade. The reorganisation was inspired by lessons identified during more than 10 years of combat operations, which began with the East Timor crisis of 1999 and continued with Australia’s participation in the USled military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The army’s aim is to develop a “relevant and sustainable Reinforced Combat Brigade that is able to operate and win across the spectrum of conflict”. The first step was Plan Beersheba, launched in December 2011, to transform the army’s three regular manoeuvre brigades - the 1st, 3rd and 7th Brigades - from uniquely organised formations - mechanised, motorised and light infantry into three similarly organised Multirole Combat Brigades (MCBs).
The brigades were restructured to consist of an armoured cavalry regiment (ACR), two standard infantry battalions, an artillery regiment, a combat signals regiment, a combat engineer regiment, and a combat service support battalion. Beersheba placed the three brigades on a 36 month ‘set, ready, reset’ force generation cycle of EDR | September/October 2020
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