Australian Security Policy Institute, This year’s budget capped off an extraordinary thirteen month period that saw the government promise more than $41 billion worth of new defence initiatives over eleven years; around $16 billion last budget, $14 billion this budget, and in excess of $11 billion in between.
Included in this latest round of funding was $11.5 billion over ten years to harden, network and expand the Army by 3,000 personnel, $6.1 billion for a fleet of twenty-four F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter aircraft and $3.5 billion for four C-17 strategic lift aircraft. These initiatives are the latest instalment in the expansion and modernisation of the defence force that commenced back in 2000.
Unpinning what is Australia’s largest military build-up since the Vietnam conflict is a commitment by the government to increase baseline defence spending by 3% above inflation every year until at least 2016. In addition, supplementation continues for overseas deployments with the accumulated cost of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq now exceeding $1.7 billion and $2 billion respectively.
Unfortunately, notwithstanding all the new money flowing into the Department of Defence (Defence), there remains a mismatch between plans and funding. Although the situation is better than it was last year, more money will be required to deliver the government’s plans for the defence force. The extent of the financial shortfall remains undisclosed.
For the moment, however, funding is not the most pressing problem for Defence. Not only is the ambitious capital investment program experiencing mounting delays in the delivery of projects, but the planned expansion of the force has proved elusive due to the persistent failure to meet recruiting targets. To address the latter problem, an extra $3.1 billion over ten years has recently been provided for personnel related initiatives.
Overall, Defence has been granted just about everything that they have asked for in recent years; all that remains is for them to deliver the military capability they have promised.
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