Australia — Army Reserve to get Bushmasters

Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary for Defence, Sen­a­tor David Feeney, and Com­man­der 2nd Divi­sion, Major Gen­er­al Craig Williams AM, today announced major reforms for Army Reserve under Plan Beer­she­ba at Simp­son Bar­racks in Wat­so­nia, Mel­bourne.

Sen­a­tor Feeney said that Plan Beer­she­ba, a restruc­ture of the Aus­tralian Army, will achieve a greater inte­gra­tion of full and part time forces and strength­en the oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ty of our part time forces. 

“In an increas­ing­ly com­plex strate­gic envi­ron­ment, we must make sure our forces are posi­tioned for the full range of pos­si­ble contingencies. 

“Plan Beer­she­ba posi­tions Army to deliv­er capa­bil­i­ty in an effec­tive, time­ly and afford­able way to meet these con­tin­gen­cies,” Sen­a­tor Feeney said. 

“This Gov­ern­ment will ensure that all Reserve Armoured Corps will receive Bush­mas­ter Pro­tect­ed Mobil­i­ty Vehi­cles to pro­vide pro­tect­ed trans­port for our troops. 

“This will be the first time in more than five years that all Army Reserve Armoured units will have armoured vehicles. 

“In addi­tion, under Beer­she­ba we intend to cre­ate a new armoured squadron with pro­tect­ed vehi­cles in Queens­land. This is a major boost to the capa­bil­i­ty of the Reserve. 

“In Mel­bourne, the armoured unit of 4th Brigade – 4th/19th Prince of Wales Light Horse who famous­ly fought at Beer­she­ba – will get Bush­mas­ters,” said Sen­a­tor Feeney. 

Com­man­der 2nd Divi­sion, Major Gen­er­al Craig Williams said that the Army’s Reserve Force (2nd Divi­sion) will be realigned with the Reg­u­lar Army, with two Reserve Brigades linked to each Mul­ti-role Manoeu­vre Brigade. 

“There will be a sig­nif­i­cant increase in the oper­a­tional focus of the Reserve which will be effect­ed through the devel­op­ment of habit­u­al rela­tion­ships between reserve brigades and the reg­u­lar Mul­ti-role Manoeu­vre Brigades,” Major Gen­er­al Williams said. 

“The 2nd Divi­sion will be aligned with the 36 month Force Gen­er­a­tion Cycle and assigned pre­pared­ness levels.” 

Defence Reserves Asso­ci­a­tion (DRA) Pres­i­dent, Major Gen­er­al Jim Bar­ry (Retd) said: 

“This is the most impor­tant struc­tur­al change for the Army Reserve in decades. 

“The six Army Reserve Brigades of 2 Divi­sion are now assigned spe­cif­ic roles and tasks and are struc­tural­ly aligned with their reg­u­lar coun­ter­parts. There is now a defined oper­a­tional focus which the DRA has been advo­cat­ing for some time,” Major Gen­er­al Jim Bar­ry (Retd) said. 

Plan Beer­she­ba is the Aus­tralian Army’s plan for the next phase of the Adap­tive Army Cam­paign. It fol­lows the changes in Army’s com­mand and con­trol struc­ture made dur­ing 2008. 

Under the plan, the 1st, 3rd and 7th Brigades will form three new Mul­ti-role Manoeu­vre Brigades. 

These Brigades will be fun­da­men­tal­ly alike in struc­ture to enable sus­tained oper­a­tions with­in a new 36-month Force Gen­er­a­tion Cycle. 

Force Gen­er­a­tion is the process through which Army read­ies itself to respond to con­tin­gen­cies that may arise. Each Brigade will have the fol­low­ing com­po­nents – infantry, armour, artillery, engi­neers, logis­tics and communications. 

Australia’s Reserve Force will be more focused on sta­bil­i­ty oper­a­tions and will be involved in major exer­cis­es with their part­nered Mul­ti-role Manoeu­vre Brigades. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →