seantheaussie said:
Where would you prefer to spend money? Armoured mobility for entire army OR half armoured mobility half unarmoured mobility of a larger army
Totally aqree
How many battalions would have to be massed? Could JFHQ command these? I assume many battalions would remain dispersed & could safely remain under divisional control.
I think I answered that in my last post. I'd prefer a motorised infantry based Army utilising a Bushmaster style vehicle for the majority of the maneuvre elements. I'd have one (or 2 in more financially viable times) air mobile based brigade, 1x (again or 2) mechanised brigades and one Special Operations organisation.
The way I think the Army should be structured is not as an Army of "Two's" as General LEAHY would like, but rather as an army of "Sixes". 6 "High-readiness" brigades, 6 regular infantry battalions and 6 lower readiness 'independant' battalion groups.
The "higher readiness" brigades would then comprise, 1x Mech Brigade designed and equipped for higher intensity warfare, 1x air mobile Brigade structured as a light infantry force for rapid deployment and 4x motorised brigades designed for medium intensity warfare but with a high degree of "self-mobility". This structure would provide for capabilities in every aspect of warfare, both expeditionary and for DOA, and allow for the rotation of (admittedly) slightly differing (in equipment) forces.
The current low readiness reserve Brigades (of which there are 10) should be downsized into "independant" battalions groups (ie: an infantry battalion plus supporting arms including: 1x Arty Bty, 1x Arm Recon Sqn, 1x Combat Eng Sqn, plus 1x combat support Sqn, comprising Sigs, Transport, MP's, medical, dental, logistics etc) and comprise approx 1/3rd of a current brigade.
I think 6 of these groups should be formed to provide as the core of an expansion base for our army should a large scale war ever appear on the horizon. They should also be responsible for "rapid deployment" tasks in support of "military aid to civilian power" operations, such as major event security, large scale bomb search tasks (such as was done for the Sydney Olympics) etc and also provide the low level Army response for Counter-terrorism tasks, ie: cordons etc. They should also be the "military link" to the community that the General reserve fills now.
As to the DJFHQ, it would depend upon the nature of the threat. If a large scale invasion of Australia was a threat, the entire army would come under Divisional or perhaps Corps control and the DFJHQ probaby would be absorbed into whatever new HQ formation was created for the crisis.
If a minor threat to Australia territory was a problem, such as special force insertions etc, a single brigade might only be deployed to deal with the problem, whilst the others were on standby. Either way, I think the DJFHQ would be incorporated into a new formation headed almost directly by the ADF HQ if DOA operations were likely to be conducted.
On a purely strategic level though, the DJFHQ was purely created to provide command for deployed forces. It has AFAIK, no direct involvement in DOA strategies...
