Minister for Defence Stephen Smith announced that he had received the final Report of the Australian Defence Force Posture Review which he commissioned in June of last year.
The Force Posture Review addresses a range of present and emerging global, regional and national strategic and security factors which require careful consideration for the future.
It was undertaken by the Department of Defence and overseen by an expert panel comprising two of Australia’s leading national security experts, Dr Allan Hawke and Mr Ric Smith, both former Secretaries of the Department of Defence.
These strategic and security factors include:
- the rise of the Asia Pacific as a region of global strategic significance;
- the rise of the Indian Ocean rim as a region of global strategic significance;
- the growth of military power projection capabilities of countries in the Asia Pacific;
- the growing need for the provision of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief following extreme events in the Asia Pacific region; and
- energy security and security issues associated with expanding offshore resource exploitation in our North West and Northern approaches.
More broadly, the Review also examined logistics support requirements, training areas for large-scale and joint training exercises, demographic and economic factors, public communications strategies, and engagement with industry, particularly the minerals and petroleum resources industries in Australia’s North and West.
The Force Posture Review Report will feed into the 2014 Defence White Paper.