Australia

 Page 8

 

Notes

By Nicholas Dowling

 

1.      Australia’s two ‘divisions’ exist for administrative purposes only. The Australian Army has not deployed a divisional sized formation since 1945 and does not expect to so in the future.

 

DFJHQ/1st Division is mainly made up of a mix of regular and reserve units based in Australia’s northern states, and 2nd Division consists solely of reservist formations based in the other states. It should be noted that there are no division level combat units – aside from the Divisional HQs and signals elements, all units are assigned to Land Command or the various brigades.

 

2.    The TO&E of a full strength Australian Light Infantry Battalion is currently:

 

Battalion Headquarters

Administration Company

Transport Platoon
Quartermasters Platoon
Catering Platoon
Technical Support Platoon
Medical Platoon

Support Company

Signals Platoon

Mortar Platoon

Mortar Section (x 3) 2 x 81mm mortar
Assault Pioneer Platoon
Direct Fire Spt Wpn Plat 6 x MMG, or Carl Gustav, or Javelin

Reconnaissance and Surveillance Platoon

Recon Patrol (x 4)

Surveillance Detachment (x 4)

Sniper pair (x 4)

Rifle Company (x 4) [A-D Company – few battalions have more than three rifle companies]

Company Headquarters

Direct Fire Spt Wpn Section 2 x GPMG or 2 x Carl Gustav

Rifle Platoon (x 3)      

Platoon Headquarters

Rifle Section (x3) 2 x Minimi, 2 x F88 Rifle

with grenade launcher, 2 x 66mm LAW

 

3. The organizations of the mechanized battalion and the motorized battalions differ somewhat from the light infantry battalion, but retain the same (theoretical) structure of four infantry companies and administration and support companies. The key differences are:
   1. Each rifle platoon in 5/7 RAR has 4 M-113 APCs with another 2 at the company HQ, for a total of 14 per company. Every rifle section in 5/7 RAR has a Carl Gustav recoilless rifle.
   2. Each motorized rifle company has 14 IMVs distributed in the same way, but each rifle platoon only has a single Carl Gustav.
4. Army Reserve battalions have somewhat different TO&Es to regular battalions. Many Reserve battalions sub-units are structured to meet reservists’ requirements and differing levels of training and availability (i.e., some platoons or companies may be exclusively manned by new recruits still being trained while others are exclusively manned by fully qualified soldiers). The structure of Reserve battalions appears to differ from battalion to battalion, presumably due to the battalion’s success in recruiting reservists, geographical factors (especially for battalions manned by reservists from rural areas) and the commanding officer’s preferences.

 

5. The 3 RAR Airborne Battle Group consists of:

 

Command elements from 3 Brigade

3 RAR

A Battery, 4 Field Regiment

Parachute Surgical Team, 1 Health Support Battalion

Signals Element, 3 CSR and 7 Signals Regiment

Engineer Troop, 3 CER

RAAF Mobile Air Control Elements

 

6. The commando companies in 1 Commando Regiment and 4 RAR are made up of a headquarters, two commando platoons and a reconnaissance platoon and integral combat service support elements. 1 Commando Regiment’s companies each also have a training platoon.

 

7. ‘Medium’ artillery batteries are equipped with 155mm towed howitzers and ‘Field’ artillery batteries are equipped with 105mm towed howitzers. A full strength artillery battery consists of 6 guns. The Australian Army’s only self propelled artillery is the 81mm mortars mounted in M-113s operated by 5/7 RAR and the M-113 equipped Cavalry/Light Horse regiments and squadrons.

 

8. Australia’s M113 APC equipped units specialize in either armored reconnaissance or armored troop transport. A full strength Cavalry/Light Horse squadron in the APC role is intended to provide enough ‘lift’ for a full light infantry battalion. A troop of APCs provides enough lift for a company.

 

In 1993 a Cavalry/Light Horse Squadron had the following structure:

 

Squadron Headquarters           9 x M113 APC

Support Troop 17 x M113 APC, 3 x TLC

Administration Troop 4 x M113 APC, 12 x TLC
Technical Supt Tp 6 x M113 APC, 1 x cargo carrier, 1 x ARV

APC Troop (x 4)

Troop Headquarters 3 x M113 APC

APC Section (x 3) 3 x M113 APC

Totals:

APC: 84

TLC: 15

ARV: 1

9 Officers and 132 other ranks

 

9. Each of the three ‘sabre’ squadrons in 2 Cavalry Regiment and 2/14 Light Horse has the following structure:

 

Squadron Headquarters 2 x ASLAV-C, 2 x ASLAV-25

Combat Support Echelon 1 x ASLAV-25, -R, x ASLAV-F, 1 x ASLAV-8

Cavalry Troop (x 3) 4 x ASLAV-25, 2 x ASLAV-PC,

1 x Cavalry Scout Section (8 Cavalry Scouts)

 

Additional cavalry scouts are attached to the regimental Headquarters.

 

10. Most of the Army Reserve M-113 equipped APC and Recon units are to convert to a light cavalry organization. It is possible that the new Army Reserve Light Cavalry Regiments may adopt a table of organization similar to that developed in the early 1990s for Project Mulgara (which was cancelled in 1997).

 

This organization consisted of:

 

Headquarters Squadron

Support Squadron

Light Reconnaissance Squadron (x 3)

            Light Reconnaissance Troop (x 5) 10 x light recon vehicle

 

The light reconnaissance vehicles used will apparently be similar to those currently used by the regional force surveillance units.