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16 NAVY ENGINEERING BULLETIN AUGUST 2002 minimise our footprint on the environment” ix . As such although the Navy is not legally bound to comply with the regulations it is morally obligated to ensure every effort is made to comply with the Erika amendments to MARPOL. If Australia wishes to maintain its Afloat Support capability for use in international operations the timetable for Project Sea 1654 needs to be accelerated. Although the modern trends in the building of auxiliary naval vessels to commercial standards can reduce construction times, building ships still takes considerable time. The Strategic Implications The Defence White Paper details Australia’s Commitment to the support of regional and world stability. This requires the ability to support Australian Forces Offshore and cooperation with allied forces, in particular the United States of America x . Also Australia’s Maritime Doctrine indicates our forces may be required to operate far from Australia “ sea control operations will be required whenever Australia’s national freedom of action at sea is threatened” xi . Due to Australia’s geographic location “practically every conceivable operation must be conducted at considerable distances from shore bases and which will therefore require reach." xii An essential element of reach is the ability to re-fuel and re-supply ships at sea which requires an afloat support capability. The utility of afloat support is not limited to ships at sea but also to land and air units deployed from established bases. This is particularly so in the initial deployment before the single service logistic support units are fully deployed and established xiii . As has been detailed above Afloat Support is essential to Australia’s strategic objectives. Where operations are undertaken uni-laterally Australia will require its own Afloat Support capability. Should this capability not comply with international standards set down in MARPOL it may make it more difficult to establish forward logistic support. Neighbouring States will be able to deny entry to the Afloat Support ships on the grounds of non-compliance with MARPOL while still offering their full support to Australia’s military objectives. The inability to establish forward support bases would substantially increase the logistic lead time and reduce the ability of the Navy to maintain a presence in an operational area remote from Australia. In addition with decommissioning of the last Destroyers the Navy’s anti-air combat power has been seriously degraded. Although still able to make a significant contribution to lower level operations such as the current sanction enforcement operations in The Gulf, Australia is not capable of the same level of support to higher level operations. Should there be another conflict of similar intensity to the 1990/91 Gulf War, where there was a perceived air threat, Australian units would not be able to contribute to the air defence effort of the United States carrier battle groups as was achieved in 1990/91. As with all capabilities the competency of the people is as important as the hardware. Once this capability is lost it will take years after the hardware is available again to regain the same level of proficiency. The provision of logistic support is one area where Australia can contribute meaningful to a coalition effort for higher level conflict in the near term. However even this will be beyond Australia’s ability if the support ships do not comply with the double hull requirements of MARPOL. In modern conflict, where diplomacy is as vital as combat power non-compliance with minimum international standards is likely to cause much hindrance to the movements of the ship. A claim of sovereign immunity will probably do more harm to the diplomatic effort than it contributes to the combat power of the coalition. The National Interest Not only does this issue effect military matters but also other areas of national interest such as environmental protection, particularly the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Australia’s Oceans policy states “ Australia will continue to take a leadership role in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to develop and promote a strong international regulatory framework for ship safety and the prevention of pollution.” xiv Australia’s case for environmental protection will be seriously hampered if the Australian Navy has ignored what is a very important environmental protection section of MARPOL 73/78 by continuing to operate single hulled tankers. Conclusion As a result of the pollution caused by the sinking of the Erika amendments to MARPOL 73/78 were agreed to in April 2001 which accelerated the phase out of single hulled tankers. The new amendment requires the withdrawal from international operations of the Navy’s two Afloat Support ships WESTRALIA and SUCCESS in 2006 and 2012 respectively. A key requirement of Australia’s maritime doctrine is to be able to operate far from Australian support bases. This requires the provision of forward logistic support of which the Afloat Support ships are essential. In addition the degradation of the Navy’s Air Warfare capability limits the ability to meaningfully support high-level coalition action other than by the provision of afloat support. However to maintain our international standing and prevent damage to other international objectives such as the strengthening of international pollution prevention agreements our Afloat Support ships need to comply with the Erika amendments to MARPOL 73/78. To achieve compliance with the MARPOL requirements the Afloat Support project needs to be brought forward and fast tracked. Notes i IMO: Prevention of Pollution by Oil, www.imo.org/environment/mainframe.asp? topic_id=231 ii ibid iii R.M. Gishubl, LEUT RAN, The Implications of Revised MARPOL Regulations on RAN Tankers, Naval Engineering Bulletin June 2001 pp 63 iv MARPOL 73/78 Annex I Regulation 13G as adopted 27 April 2001 v MARPOL 73/78 Annex I Regulation 13G para 3(a) as adopted 27 April 2001 vi MARPOL 73/78 Annex I Regulation 13G para 4 as adopted 27 April 2001 vii Commonwealth of Australia: Defence Capability Plan 2001-2010 Public Version, www.dmo.defence.gov.au/id/dcp/dcp_publ ic.pdf, pp261-262 viii United Nations Convention on the Law Of the Sea 1982, article 236 ix Commonwealth of Australia, Defence Environmental Policy, December 2001 x Commonwealth of Australia, Defence 2000, Our Future Defence Force, para 8.53-8.54 pp88 xi Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Maritime Doctrine, Defence Publishing Service Canberra ACT, pp 40 xii Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Maritime Doctrine, Defence Publishing Service Canberra ACT, pp100 xiii Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Maritime Doctrine, Defence Publishing Service Canberra ACT, pp85 xiv Commonwealth of Australia, Australia’s Oceans Policy, Environment Australia, pp 27 Bibliography Commonwealth of Australia, Defence Environmental Policy, December 2001 Commonwealth of Australia, Defence 2000, Our Future Defence Force Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Maritime Doctrine, Defence Publishing Service Canberra ACT Commonwealth of Australia: Defence Capability Plan 2001-2010 Public Version, www.dmo.defence.gov.au/id/dcp/ dcp_public.pdf Gishubl R.M., LEUT RAN, The Implications of Revised MARPOL Regulations on RAN Tankers, Naval Engineering Bulletin June 2001 IMO, Prevention of Pollution by Oil, www.imo.org/environment/mainframe.asp? topic_id=231 Janes Defence Weekly MARPOL 73/78 Annex I Regulation 13G as adopted 27 April 2001 Marine Engineering Review, Institute of Marine Engineers London UK United Nations Convention on the Law Of the Sea 1982
NAVY ENGINEERING BULLETIN AUGUST 2002 17 Comic Relief Home Based Naval Officer Training Naval Officer training is now available at home. All you have to do to become an Officer is complete the at-home training curriculum in the following pipelines: Navigator: Tie a brick around your neck and stare out the living room window for hours at a time. Call your father every time a car passes by your house.Take bearings on random streetlights. Ship XO: Muster the kids out in the backyard.Tell them to paint the house Ship's side grey.When your 10-year-old spills a litre of paint in the pool, reduce him in age to nine and cut his allowance. Aviator: Draw special shoes from stores that make "Wocca-wocca" noises while you walk. Target random passers-by and tell them how difficult flying is. Put in three hours practice a day by donning headphones (with Top Gun soundtrack) and mirror sunglasses and stare out of smallest window in the house. PWO: Turn off all the lights in the house and put the A/C on high. Put earmuffs on all the kids and make them sit in front of a blank TV screen for 8 hours at a time. Berate them when they can't figure out an SOA to get from the kitchen to the downstairs bathroom instantaneously. Resort to several years of intensive psychotherapy. WEEO: Strut around the house ranting to anyone you see in a rare form of ancient Gaelic.When they don't understand, chuckle and tell them that the toaster and the microwave "just aren't talking." DWEEO: Follow around WEEO. Randomly nod in agreement. MEO: Pour your lawn mower's fuel can into the pool. Run around the house three times, then throw 12 rolls of toilet paper into the pool. Finally, pull out the phone book and call every person in neighbourhood and tell them "it was only a cup's worth." Resort to heavy drinking. DMEO: Crawl into a sleeping bag and tie it off at its end. Have the kids beat you mercilessly with lead filled armaflex bats while your wife yells at you through a megaphone "Engineering Casualty, Engineering Casualty." Training Systems Officer: Enrol in a fairly useless degree. After joining Navy, acquire Big Book of Courses to carry around. Tell members of your family at random that the course they want is full, cancelled or they don't have the right pre-requisites. Enrol in another fairly useless degree. Offer QC, 360-degree feedback and counselling sessions to all of the members of your family. Gunnery Officer: Make the whole family shoot the family shotgun into the pool. Roll out the garden hose to the front lawn and spray any suspicious visitors including your neighbours and the mailman.Tell Grandma she can't come in to visit the kids because she's not on the access list. ASW Officer: About once every year, throw a cucumber into the pool. Put on a blindfold and tie your hands behind your back with a small garden hose. Dive in and try to find the cucumber using only your mouth. Have the kids fire green flares at you every ten minutes. Supply Officer: Walk from bedroom to bedroom with magical bottomless cup of coffee in hand. Skilfully bring fellow housemates' misfortunes to the forefront to steer conversation away from the fact that they are forced to use glad wrap as underwear while on deployment as the stores system cannot cope with more than three minor clothing orders during the SO's tenure. USN Exchange Officer: Follow around SO. Randomly nod in agreement. Every three months, receive in the post another ribbon to add to the four rows you already have. DSO: Follow SO and USN Exchange Officer around and nod in unison. Colour coordinate pens in top and side pockets of coveralls. Randomly bitch about SONPAS and why should they get paid $1000.00 per day to get someone else to calculate foreign currency rates since DSOs have been doing it since 1911 for bugger all. Casually remind Seaman Officers that even if you stay in until 55 you will only have to go to sea twice. In answer to every question remotely related to Public Money utter the phrase 'fill in a FA12 and get back to me'. Try to find out where the Pusser gets his bottomless brew mug from. Damage Control Engineer: Set your alarm clock to go off at random during the night, jump up and get dressed as fast as you can making sure you button up the top button on your shirt and stuff your pants into your socks. Close every door in the house, then run out into the backyard and uncoil the garden hose. Intelligence Officer: Tap your own phone. Inspect your own bank accounts.Take no note of unidentified $1000 deposits every week. Interrogate the postman. Paint the door of the spare room green, refuse to let anyone into it, and once inside, write reports inside red folders and then burn them. Operations Officer: Climb to the highest point of the house and jump off headfirst into the driveway.Tell anyone who asks: "Trust me, it's better this way". Executive Officer/Navigator combo: Every so often, throw the cat in the pool and shout "Man overboard, starboard side".Then run into the house and sweep all the pots and dishes off the counter.Yell at the wife and kids for not having the kitchen "stowed for sea." CO: Refuse to answer the phone. Employ your oldest kid as COSEC. Throw everything off your desk except a folder entitled "Promotions". Admit your kids and the wife at three hourly intervals and tell them they need to lift their game. Meanwhile, surf the Net for opportunities to post out of this damned house.
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