Ibid - Australian Army

25
Study Paper No. 301
against a form of low-level conventional conflict. This form of
conflict demanded a ‘balanced, versatile [Army] capable of
sustained operations’, combined with the deployment of ‘lean,
hard-hitting and highly mobile forces’. 94
To meet the needs of command and control in dispersed operations,
1st Division Headquarters was to be converted into a deployable
divisional headquarters (later a nucleus of the Deployable Joint
Force Headquarters) and the Australian Army Automated
Command and Control System (AUSTACCS) was to be
developed. 95 Further attempts to increase operational readiness in
the 1980s involved expanding mechanised and parachute
capabilities and improved logistics. The SASR meanwhile
increased its counter-terrorist capabilities by developing a Tactical
Assault Group for urban operations and an Offshore Installation
Assault Group. 96
The Army’s series of Kangaroo exercises in the 1980s tested
aspects of the new Army organisation in what was styled
‘conventional low-scale mid-intensity conflict’. 97 Kangaroo 89
involved up to 18 000 troops, 3000 vehicles including light-armour,
and various aircraft including new Blackhawk battlefield
helicopters. 98 For training purposes, a new doctrinal pamphlet,
MLW Three 2.2, The Musorian Armed Forces, was published in
94
95
96
97
98
The Army in the 1980s, p. iii.
Ibid., p. 17.
‘Forecast of Capabilities and Operational Status of the Army at the end
of the 1980s’, para. 6. See also Horner, SAS: Phantoms of the Jungle,
chap. 23.
Horner, ‘Ready Reaction and Specialisation’, p. 318. The Army’s
structure was described in 1982 as being designed principally ‘to
engage in limited conventional war in defence of Australia and its
interests’, The Army in the 1980s, p. 3.
Commonwealth of Australia, Defence Report 1990–91, Australian
Government Publishing Service, 1992, pp. 49–60.