THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY LOGISTICIAN

The Australian Army Logistician

The Australian Army Logistician

INTRODUCTION

1 Logistics originated from Greek language, means “Arts of calculation”. From the past until the present, military logistics and victory or defeat in wars have depended on the strength and weakness of logistics potentials . The meaning of international logistics management defined by the Council of Logistics Management (CLM) is “The process of planning, operation and controlling efficiency and effectiveness of the flow, storing materials, inventories in the process of ready-made goods and information related from the starting point to operating point with an aim to be in accordance with consumers”.

2This term paper will display that Australian logistics Army amply arranged for operational and non-operating position. It will be shown in the environment of teaching, support and know-how supplied logistical support, as well as an overview of procedures in Somalia, East Timor and the Middle East.

MILITARY CAPABILITY AND THE ROLE OF GEOGRAPHY

3 Obvious questions to be addressed by the authors of a new Defence White Paper include: Should the Australian Defence Force (ADF) be structured around the most likely contingencies, or the ones with the severest consequences? Should it be optimised for Australia's wars of choice, or its wars of necessity? Can the country afford to concentrate on today's problems, or must it prepare now for tomorrow's challenges? While these questions can be formulated as binary choices, the answers need not be. Major procurement programs determine the shape of the ADF for decades to come, but sub-systems, training, doctrine, logistic support and, to some extent, even platform numbers can be adapted over time.

4Defence planning and force structuring is thus a problem of maximising the strategic utility of the ADF over time. On the one hand, each particular aspect of a capability—such as platform types, numbers, subsystems or logistic support—is a constraint for those aspects that can be changed within a shorter time. On the other hand, the fact that capabilities are more than mere platforms means that any force structure will always have an inherent level of flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances over time. If one considers decisions on readiness levels, at the very short-term end of that spectrum, defence planning decisions about capability even begin to merge into employment decisions proper. Over longer timescales, Defence policy must focus on the most severe, rather than most likely, scenarios. Despite sensationalist claims about modern terrorism, truly existential threats still require the projection of significant military force over distance. Despite being downplayed in Australia's recent debates, geography thus remains a reliable indicator of the types of challenges both an enemy and the ADF would have to face, should a serious threat to Australia develop. In gauging the enduring significance of geography, the authors of the new White Paper might ponder its impact on the strategic choices made by maritime powers throughout history.

5It is true that the sea is a highway that leads such powers to fight in faraway places. But it is also true that the sea does not, ...