Ibid - Australian Army

39
Study Paper No. 301
Because COMAST was the senior operational commander, he was
given responsibility for the development of operational art and
campaign planning in the ADF. Accordingly HQAST’s Doctrine,
Training and Interoperability (J7) Branch took control of the ADF
Warfare Centre and its joint doctrine function. 153 During 1997–98,
HQAST produced an interim edition of Decisive Manoeuvre, a
pamphlet on operational level warfighting concepts and provisional
doctrine on operational control entitled Theatre Command. Both
documents are to be integrated into ADF doctrine during 1999. 154
Finally, during 1997, the ADF adopted a common joint staff system
at the operational level based on a version of that used by the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). 155
Low-level Operations, the 1992 Fundamentals of Land Warfare and
the Operational Art
During the first half of 1990s, Army planners sought to take
account of low-level short-warning conflict to establish how land
forces would operate as part of a joint force at all levels and across
all battlefield functions. In his Development and Training Directive
for the period 1 July 1990 to 30 June 1993, the CGS, Lieutenant
General John Coates, tasked Training Command to review Army
doctrine. His aim was to ensure that existing doctrine accorded with
strategic guidance and was focused on the most likely, rather than
the least likely possibilities. Particular emphasis was placed on
‘application appropriate to Australia’s circumstances, and on
153
154
155
Ibid.
Australian Defence Force, Decisive Manoeuvre: Australian
Warfighting Concepts to Guide Campaign Planning, Headquarters
Australian Theatre, Sydney, November 1997, interim edn; Theatre
Command: Australian Defence Force Provisional Doctrine, Defence
Publishing Agency, Canberra, July 1998.
Australian Army, Doctrine Status and Development 1996, Training
Command Instruction 2/96, Headquarters Training Command,
Sydney, November 1996, p. 15, para. 62.