"JD" wrote in message
om...

My two cents;

Spend more on the Navy and Air Force. Cut back the army.

Realistically, in the current environment I think we should be spending
rather more on ALL the services.
This no doubt means an increased budget allocation which would reflect
in increased taxes. The money
has to come from somewhere, so it may be the only real option. We don't
spend enough on defence in
the current somewhat hostile environment.

**** off the idea of tanks, bushmasters, APCs.

It's difficult to envisage a local scenario that would benefit greatly
from heavy armour.
That said, since we have a somewhat capable (depite the length of it's
teeth) MBT,
I'd probably just stick with that. New Leopards might make the turret
heads feel good
but I don't presently believe it would significantly increase our
defence capability.

The M113's are getting *well* past their use-by dates. I think they
need to go,
give them to the reserves to train in, but they really need to be
replaced by ASLAV ASAP.
The Bushmaster seems to me to be a poor mans ASLAV, if we had more ASLAV
you wouldn't need
to bugger about with it.

Remove 1 Armd, 5/7 RAR, 8/12 Mdm
Regt and associated support elements from the ORBAT.

Why throw them away? But a review of their role and positioning would
seem to be essential.

Move 3 RAR up to Enoggera.

Yep.

Buy ASLAVs,

Yep. Lots of. It's a *big* country if you have to walk it. We need to
improve our force mobility
*significantly*. This *must* include the ability to *logistically*
support a more highly mobile fielded force
as well. This is an even bigger can of worms..

More choppers.

Yes, and that should include a Cobra or Apache equivalent. But troopie
and heavy lift stuff too.
It's noted that the RAAF are considering *not* retiring the Caribou
fleet for something newer,
so "Wallaby Airlines" can fill *some* of the roles of the transport helo
with only the most basic
of prepared strips (though this becomes harder in the 'wet'.) But we
*need* more helos too.

Make all reservists infantry.

I'd say make *most* of them infantry, a core of 'ready replacements' for
more specialised roles is not
without merit, this is essentially the role of the RAAF Reserve and
Naval Reserve.

Or accept that our army really isn't going to do anything,

If it's done right, they *shouldn't* have a lot to do *here* but we
can't assume that.
It's likely that OS deployments are on the increase however and that
will probably be largely
infantry and special forces.

so just **** it off and let the Yanks have their base here.

Or keep it and let the Yanks have a base. The choices need not be
mutually exclusive, however I doubt the Yanks really want or need a
base here. If something flares up they could probably occupy one of
the 'bare bones' bases fairly quickly without the cost and
provocativeness
of establishing a permanent presence.

Just my 1c worth (I'm somewhat less qualified than others here)

The CO