ISSUE 14 : Jan/Feb - 1979 - Australian Defence Force Journal

1^Some thoughts on AD FA •*H5F «iF.f(Australian Defence Force Academy)Captain S.J. HollanderRoyal New Zealand Infantry RegimentBACKGROUNDTHE requirement to handle large bodies ofmen and quantities of material is animportant aspect in the profession of arms. Inthe Twentieth Century, this quantity factor hasbeen complicated by a quality factor as militaryplannersand commanders have access togreater and more sophisticated resources.These resources have increased the optionsavailable to defence planners and commandersalike. The need for senior officers tounderstand the complexities of TwentiethCentury technology and the consequent optionshas caused us to upgrade the educationalqualifications of officer aspirants.Most countries involved in training officershave come to accept that a proportion of itsofficer corps needs to be tertiary qualified,however, the proportion that need to be soqualified has not yet been universally resolved.The decision to create ADFA to provide theAustralian armed forces with its tertiaryqualified officers has caused an uneasiness inthe minds of academics and soldiers alike. Theneed for tertiary qualified officers is nowaccepted. The question becomes now, 'IsADFA the best way of providing theseofficers?'Despite the need to use the whole spectrum ofdefence resources in concert to gain the desiredeffect in future conflicts the nature of eachservice may require a different sequence ofinitial officer training. Do pilots do their flighttraining before or after their studies; do tertiaryCaptain Hollander, a graduate of OCS, Portsea, is atpresent on the Staff there.qualified midshipmen like going to sea (orshould this be established before attendance ona long and expensive course); and do armyofficer aspirants join to return to school or tolead men?COST OF ADFAThe last cost I saw for ADFA was $80m. (inan article in The Australian). This apparently isthe cost of providing the facilities for ADFA.Although I have not seen a detailed breakdownof this estimate, I suspect that this is an 'operahouse prediction'. It may not allow for theupgrading of the three service colleges requiredby the introduction of ADFA or the ongoingmaintenance and staff costs. It can notaccurately estimate the cost of 'academictradition', in money terms or in terms of thetime it will take for ADFA to gain recognitionfrom the academic community at large. Thisacceptance may be speeded by investment in thefield of research and the offering of researchscholarships, but at what cost? I suspect thatthe real cost of ADFA over the next 20 years,should it be established, will be many times thisoriginal estimate.In 1975 there were eighteen universities inAustralia (with 94 Colleges of AdvancedEducation and Feachers' Colleges). Theseuniversities received grants from the FederalGovernment through the State Governmentstotalling S443,980m.My own uneasiness about ADFA conceptstems from my understanding of the reasonsfor maintaining a defence force. We do notmaintain the armed forces so that they cancompete with another branch of government,(the education department). Nor is theestablishment of ADFA fully utilizing anexisting and very expensive national resource(the existing universities system).