ADF cost per flying hour.

(click image to make larger)

Australian command disease

An interesting thing with Australia and its many failings in Defence Leadership:

The system loves studies. More studies, and, more studies. In those studies they mention wanting to find out the root cause of problems (many times) and then, do little to find out root cause.

Empty words. Time and again.

The Australian Entrenched Defence Bureaucracy is in absolute fear of firing those responsible for cause. So much so, that more times than not, they are unable to do it.

Firing, for cause, a flag-rank or other commander here or there, when the problem warrants it, is healthy to a military culture. It is an object lesson.

The system is made up of what can only be described as, a group of senior leadership which exercises moral cowardice as a consistent standard.

Patton: "There are more tired division commanders than tired divisions".

Firing, for cause would be healthy for Defence. For example, if a string of abuse on a ship happens and the commander and chief of the boat do little about it, you fire the ship commander and the chief of the boat.

As I observe this disease more and more, I am shocked at how the command climate in the ADF seems largely, unmilitary.

That is a serious problem.

ADF helicopter community reporting of flight safety events brought into question

Rarely do I comment on safety-of-flight issues as I have spent time supporting accident investigation teams and sometimes things are not always as they seem. However this caught my eye in today's The Australian in regard to an ADF CH-47 mishap in Afghanistan:

“There have been attempts, of course, to fix the system, but in fact the systematic failures within army aviation have continued.”

Wing Commander Jonas criticised the practice in Afghanistan of recording problems with the Chinook helicopter in an incident book without sending the problems up the chain of command and notifying superiors in Australia.

“There could have been amply qualified individuals in Australia ... that could have gone 'ping, there is a problem that needs addressing',” he said.

“What happened in Afghanistan, stayed in Afghanistan.

“The command chain needs to address this.”

Awards

The Queens birthday honours list has produced some good awards for the ADF.

The highest awards for gallantry announced today were three Medals for Gallantry to Corporal Ryan Avery of the Northern Territory, Bombardier David Robertson of South Australia and Private T, a soldier whose identity cannot be disclosed.

Corporal Avery exposed himself to enemy fire repeatedly while protecting his mates by engaging the enemy in Afghanistan on December 4, 2010.

Bombardier Robertson directed mortar fire on to well-concealed enemy positions from an exposed observation post in Uruzgan Province on March 20 last year.

"His bravery in extremely hazardous conditions guaranteed the safety of his own team and prevented casualties among advancing Australian and Afghan forces," his citation states.

Leading Seaman Deanna Pringle, the cook and primary health care provider aboard HMAS Pirie during the Christmas Island refugee boat tragedy on December 15, 2010, has been awarded the Conspicuous Service Medal.

Her citation states her "highly effective triage and supervision of the treatment of 27 seriously injured casualties for several hours" had saved the lives of many people and inspired even more.

"She undertook this role despite limited medical training and experience. After this ordeal, and once the casualties were ashore, she prepared the evening meal for the ship's company and continued to assist in the search for more survivors."

More than 30 people died after an asylum seeker vessel carrying an estimated 90 refugees, ran on to rocks at Flying Fish Cove. HMAS Pirie and the customs vessel Triton played a vital role in plucking at least 42 people from the sea.

Expensive flying machines

Expensive.

Here is a look at some of the costs associated with flying in the ADF.

(click image to make larger)

Via this report by ASPI.

ANZAC Day ADF topic--bloat

The ratio of civilians to military in the Australian Entrenched Defence Bureaucracy (EDB) is not good.

Civilian count is around 21~22k. While cuts have been proposed, they are not enough.

Military personnel numbers are as follows:

Besides the civilian service bloat, look at all this top-rank dead weight.

So where do we get some inspiration for trimming this nonsense?

Cdr Salamander has an idea. The Italians.

"We currently have 183,000 soldiers and 30,000 civilians in defence. We will gradually bring that down to 150,000 soldiers and 20,000 civlians, with a reduction of around 43,000," Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola said. "This target can be achieved in a decade with a 20-percent or 30-percent reduction in hirings, transfers to other civil service jobs and temporary work options," Di Paola told lawmakers at a defence committee hearing. The number of admirals and generals would also be reduced by "more than 30 percent" from the 425 currently in service, Di Paola said.

And, how much of the now $27B per year budget spent by the EDB delivers real combat value?

Defence can be fixed. Who will help?

General Molan has an interesting write-up over on the Interpreter blog about the same old sad story of Defence management woes.

He brings up the complaints of Mr. Babbage--one of the authors of the 2009 Defefence White Paper--but doesn’t mention that Mr. Babbage’s statements to our elected officials have always been weak in understanding things like net-centric warfare (over-selling it), air power (blessed be the system of systems approach...it will win); you name it. Is Mr. Babbage really someone you want helping to author a Defence White Paper?

General Molan goes on to state this.

“That the Government is, in an underhanded and duplicitous way, shredding the previously announced 2009 defence plan should not surprise any of us. Governments have done this to Defence White Papers since 1976. But this Government has done it faster and more deeply than even Kim Christian Beazley did, which is saying something.”

In some ways, this is well and proper. The Government should treat the 2009 Defence White Paper with all the contempt it is due because it is a laughing stock of a product. It is a rudder that is jammed making us go around in circles; going nowhere fast; chasing our tails. The 2009 Defence White Paper has little worth.

He states that “the retired community is deathly silent”. I disagree. There are a few people that have tried to make a difference. However, if no one listens and the groupthink mode rules the day, no amount of quality analysis will make a difference.

Defence will be gutted simply because there are few that can make sensible plans and few that can advocate change that makes both strategic and affordable sense.

When Australia can demand that the entrenched Defence bureaucracy is held to real account; that proper strategic thought can be put to paper; that institutional groupthink is hunted down and killed, we might be able to make a go of having an ADF worthy of the name.