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174 australian maritime issues 2009: spc-a annual
cause the reliance on commercial contract to fail. Due to the global financial crisis, there
are over 450 container and hybrid Ro/Ro containerships sitting idle worldwide. 36 There
are 1550 new ships on order for construction over the next few years. In some cases
shipping companies have paid a large deposit and had to walk away from partially built
ships. 37 Although not specifically designed to support amphibious lift, for the cost of 20
to 30 crew and under A$50 million, Australia could procure dedicated, new or relatively
new commercially designed strategic lift ships. With minor modifications, these ships
could greatly enhance the supportability of the sea basing concept.
Conclusion
This essay explained the US concept of sea basing, looked at the littoral environment
that makes up Australia’s POE and reviewed Australian land, maritime and amphibious
doctrine to determine if sea basing is a power projection platform or just a pipe dream
for Australia. It is clear that the US Navy and US Marine Corps concept of sea basing
is unachievable for the ADF as its size, scope, and global reach are neither affordable
nor required. However, this does not mean that the concepts and benefits of sea
basing should be ignored, it just needs to be appropriately scaled to fit the ADF’s
requirements. Sea basing is not a power projection platform but it is actually a power
projection concept as it supports existing doctrine and capability. In the Australian
context, sea basing simply improves current effectiveness. Furthermore, Australia
should develop a sea basing capability as it supports existing land and maritime
doctrine while improving deployment timelines, force protection capability, force
supportability and manoeuvrability. The only outstanding area of concern is the
supportability of the sea basing concept when faced with an enduring operation. This
will be addressed somewhat by the procurement of an amphibious strategic sealift
capability. However, a lack of traditional sealift capabilities could cause the sea base
concept to be unsustainable beyond a few weeks. Although there are other minor areas
that should be addressed, as the sea basing concept is further developed, the joint and
doctrinal obstacles will be overcome.