Ibid - Australian Army

Land Warfare Studies Centre 60
concept of strategy. Lieutenant General Hickling’s statement that
the new doctrine represents a ‘reassertion of Army’s intellectual
leadership of defence processes’ reflects this broader, more
proactive approach. 247
The LWD 1, 1999 manual also seeks to be a practical blueprint that
links current force preparedness with future capability
development. The Army intends to match preparedness of land
force elements for short-notice crisis-warning missions
(predominantly high-readiness Regular operations) with longerterm
capability-warning tasks (predominantly lower-readiness
Reserve operations). 248 To this end—and unlike past editions of the
MLW Fundamentals in 1977, 1985 and 1992—LWD 1 devotes
considerable detail to the relationship between doctrine and the
methodology of a concept-led and capability-based approach to
analysing land warfare.
A concept-led approach is designed to optimise future capability
through a continuum of development from the current Army-in-
Being (AIB) to the next force, the ECF (5–20 years in the future),
and subsequently to the Army-After-Next (AAN)—a force that
looks 20–30 years forward. 249 This approach is aimed at
‘transforming the Army from one designed in the industrial age to
one suited to the demands and possibilities inherent in the
information age’. 250
In this important transition, doctrine is declared to be ‘fundamental
to the Army’s concept-led, capability-based approach to providing
prepared land forces that are organised, trained and equipped to
conduct effective military operations’. 251 Doctrine is seen as the key
to unifying planning, the conduct of operations and command
247
248
249
250
251
Speech by Chief of Army, Russell Offices, Canberra, 1 March 1999.
Notes taken by author.
The Fundamentals of Land Warfare 1999, pp. 3-20 – 3-21.
Ibid., p. 1-7.
Ibid., p. 1-2.
Ibid., p. 1-9.