These will be converted into identical multirole brigades, with more support and supply capabilities. ... In addition, ten smaller (battalion size) battle groups will be formed. A small amphibious brigade will be organized, which will use new amphibious ships and be trained for disaster relief as well as combat. Reservists will be more thoroughly integrated into active duty units.
Interesting. This makes the Australian brigades more readily compatible with our Army, which uses self-contained brigades that can be plugged into any division headquarters. I assume these would be the heart of any Australian expeditionary force.
The brigades could also be the strategic reserve to reinforce the battle groups should the worst happen and an enemy force land on Australia. American brigade combat teams would also fit in better if sent to Australia to assist in defending them from invasion.
The battle groups would be better suited for homeland defense or to rotate replacements into deployed brigades.
The amphibious force helps with regional first response to a natural disaster or combat crisis.
I wonder how the reservists fit in with this? Are any of the brigades deployable without reservists? Or are the battle groups largely going to be the reservist force?
Overall, this seems like a good move to leverage American help to go along with Australia's plans for their air and naval forces.
UPDATE: Ah, more on the reorganization. The active brigades look to be fully deployable with two battalions (like ours) and an armored cavalry regiment (battalion) that would be heavier than our recon battalions that rely on calling in fires (I'd rather heavy up our recon units). They'll have an artillery and engineer battalion, too, plus support forces.
The reserves will be aligned with the active brigades (2 reserve brigades each, although it speaks of 10 battalion-sized battle groups, so one brigade has four brigades or maybe one is separate or maybe it will be trained for amphibious operations to back up the active amphibious trained battle group) and trained for stability operations, so it looks like this is designed to put up to a full division into the field for a long time with two more similar forces prepared to rotate into the field behind the first division-sized force.
If it is conventional fighting, the three active brigades could be sent off at once. Presumably, the reserves could either bolster these with their lighter stuff for rear area security or prepare for high intensity operations with more training and new equipment.
