OMEN
08-24-2006, 10:14 PM
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MORE TROOPS NEEDED: Australia wants to increase the size of its military to be able to cope with more expected trouble spots in the Pacific like East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
CANBERRA: Australia announced a $A10 billion ($NZ12.03b) plan to increase the size of its army so it could respond more quickly to emergencies caused by growing instability in small Asia-Pacific nations.
Prime Minister John Howard said the army would seek an extra 2600 troops, on top of the 1500 extra forces announced earlier in the year, to provide two more battalions.
He said the rapid deterioration of law and order in the Solomon Islands and East Timor this year, and the potential for instability in the Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu, prompted the military build up.
"It is overwhelmingly in our interests to stop states failing," Howard told reporters.
"I have very much in mind the experiences in East Timor, in the Solomons, the worry I continue to have about Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu," he said.
Australia currently has about 51,000 full-time soldiers, sailors and air force personnel.
The two new battalions will strengthen Australia's army to the highest number of active battalions since 1973, when Australia withdrew from the Vietnam War, Howard said.
The military build-up comes as Australia's stretched military maintains deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands, with more than 4200 military personnel on duty overseas.
Australia sent about 3000 peacekeepers to East Timor in June to head an international force to restore order following violence in the capital Dili, although the deployment is now being scaled back.
It also has about 1400 forces in and around Iraq, and about 500 in Afghanistan. A detachment of 150 more troops began leaving this week to bolster the Afghan deployment.
Australia led an international force into the Solomon Islands in 2003 when the nation was on the brink of collapse and was facing increased ethnic violence.
Australia sent another 400 troops and more police to the capital, Honiara, in April this year after a fresh outbreak of violence and riots following national elections.
Howard said while Australia did not see any increased military threats to the country, regional instability would become worse over the next two decades and would require Australia's military to be able to respond.
"I believe in the next 10 to 20 years, Australia will face a number of situations the equivalent of, or potentially more challenging, than the Solomon Islands or East Timor," he said.
Howard did not say how the military would find the extra recruits, with the defence forces already struggling to fill recruitment targets and with defence surveys showing 30 per cent of servicemen and women were looking at quitting.
A report by security analysts the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said Australia had spent A$500 million over five years to build up the defence forces, but overall troop numbers had continued to fall.
It said in the past two years defence staffing levels remained 1000 below target, while the number of people leaving the forces continued to increase to a high of almost 13 per cent for the army and just over 12 per cent for the navy.
Reuters
MORE TROOPS NEEDED: Australia wants to increase the size of its military to be able to cope with more expected trouble spots in the Pacific like East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
CANBERRA: Australia announced a $A10 billion ($NZ12.03b) plan to increase the size of its army so it could respond more quickly to emergencies caused by growing instability in small Asia-Pacific nations.
Prime Minister John Howard said the army would seek an extra 2600 troops, on top of the 1500 extra forces announced earlier in the year, to provide two more battalions.
He said the rapid deterioration of law and order in the Solomon Islands and East Timor this year, and the potential for instability in the Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu, prompted the military build up.
"It is overwhelmingly in our interests to stop states failing," Howard told reporters.
"I have very much in mind the experiences in East Timor, in the Solomons, the worry I continue to have about Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu," he said.
Australia currently has about 51,000 full-time soldiers, sailors and air force personnel.
The two new battalions will strengthen Australia's army to the highest number of active battalions since 1973, when Australia withdrew from the Vietnam War, Howard said.
The military build-up comes as Australia's stretched military maintains deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands, with more than 4200 military personnel on duty overseas.
Australia sent about 3000 peacekeepers to East Timor in June to head an international force to restore order following violence in the capital Dili, although the deployment is now being scaled back.
It also has about 1400 forces in and around Iraq, and about 500 in Afghanistan. A detachment of 150 more troops began leaving this week to bolster the Afghan deployment.
Australia led an international force into the Solomon Islands in 2003 when the nation was on the brink of collapse and was facing increased ethnic violence.
Australia sent another 400 troops and more police to the capital, Honiara, in April this year after a fresh outbreak of violence and riots following national elections.
Howard said while Australia did not see any increased military threats to the country, regional instability would become worse over the next two decades and would require Australia's military to be able to respond.
"I believe in the next 10 to 20 years, Australia will face a number of situations the equivalent of, or potentially more challenging, than the Solomon Islands or East Timor," he said.
Howard did not say how the military would find the extra recruits, with the defence forces already struggling to fill recruitment targets and with defence surveys showing 30 per cent of servicemen and women were looking at quitting.
A report by security analysts the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said Australia had spent A$500 million over five years to build up the defence forces, but overall troop numbers had continued to fall.
It said in the past two years defence staffing levels remained 1000 below target, while the number of people leaving the forces continued to increase to a high of almost 13 per cent for the army and just over 12 per cent for the navy.
Reuters