A MUSICAL VOYAGE - Royal Australian Navy

- 70 –
HURT STATEMENT—
RAN BAND FUNDED RESERVE COMMITMENT (FRC)
MUSN/OUT/2010/055
COMSPT Through: CSO EST
HURT STATEMENT—RAN BAND FUNDED RESERVE COMMITMENT (FRC)
Introduction
1. Mission. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Band is a prestigious unit of the Australian
Defence Force (ADF). Its mission is to promote the Royal Australian Navy as a Navy
renowned for excellence in service to the nation. 1 This is achieved by delivering high
quality musical, ceremonial and public relations services to a wide range of Navy activities
ashore, afloat and on the international stage. The band’s strengths are its people, its depth
of individual and organisational expertise, its ability to provide a highly capable and
flexible level of service, and its record of service to Navy and to the Nation.
2. Structure. The band is structured around a Directorate of Music with two
components comprising seven detachments. The permanent component has two full-time
detachments and the reserve component has five part-time detachments. The full-time
detachments are located in Sydney and Melbourne and the part-time detachments are
located in Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth.
3. Capability. The permanent component maintains a set of versatile music
capabilities specialising in the delivery of ceremonial music, traditional and contemporary
wind music, and popular music products. Key capabilities are its ceremonial ensembles,
wind orchestra and concert band. The permanent component maintains a Sea Deployment
Group to provide support to international sea deployments. The reserve component, known
as the Scrap Iron Flotilla, delivers ceremonial and popular music products and maintains a
strong metropolitan focus. Key capabilities are its parade bands, popular music ensembles
and small wind ensembles. This multiple segmentation strategy is enhanced by a marketing
mix that includes benchmark activities, sea and operational deployments, and a range of
capabilities within each detachment.
4. Output. The band reaches many thousands of people across the nation each year
and thereby promotes Navy’s image throughout the wider community. The Reserve
Component completes more than 225 tasks each year engaging with an estimated direct
audience 2 of 180,000 people across the nation.
5. FRC positions. Currently, the Reserve Component has 34 FRC positions shared by
126 reserve musicians distributed throughout the five part-time detachments. For FY 09/10,
4,984 days were allocated with a full salary cost of $849,968.
Navy’s Strategic Plan 2009/2010
6. Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Crane, states in The Navy Strategic Plan 2009-2010 that
Navy must ensure that its workforce distribution meets its long-term sustainability needs as
well as its short-term priorities. 3 He goes on to state that the most fundamental contributor
to Navy’s success is its own sense of worth and self esteem, and that these are gained, in a
large part, through Navy’s positive reputation, and that Navy’s reputation can be impacted
by factors such as its visibility among the Australian public’. 4
1
This aligns with Navy’s vision and Chief of Navy’s Strategic Intent as given in The Navy Strategic Plan
2009 - 2010.
2 Direct audiences are where members of the band engage directly with members of the public and take
the opportunity to personally delivery Navy’s key messages; as opposed to playing to a passing crowd or
for a street parade or for a short media hit on television.
3 The Navy Strategic Plan 2009-2010, July 2009, para 19
4 ibid, para 15
Royal Australian Navy Band: A Musical Voyage