Page 38 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2019

BUDGET OVERVIEW
2019
This has been revised up to $62 billion be- tween now and 2022-2023. How the govern- ment will spend an extra $8 billion remains to be seen. Cynically, it’s very easy to spend more money on the JSF fleet which will ramp up quickly with deliveries of the platform itself now happening versus shipbuilding which takes make longer to ramp up.
Workforce
Total full time defence workforce average for both uniformed and APS is forecast to be 76,362 (down almost 200 people from the previous year) and is forecast to stay around that level only varying by a few hundred across the forward four years of estimates. This variation is driven by uni- formed personnel fluctuations as the APS workforce is effectively frozen at current levels and not does include ASD personnel since they are a separate statutory authority.
It must also be noted here that the Budget figures provided in figure 1 are an allocation
of workforce numbers rather than actual people in jobs. Actual figures vary based on recruitment and retention targets by both the services and the APS. The actual figure in 2018-2019 was 74,675 people in the Aus- tralian Defence Organisation; 1,687 bums on seats less than allocated. See figure 1 for a breakdown of these numbers by service.
Contractor numbers are also a thing of the past with neither Senate Estimates or the Budget papers providing numbers as these are ‘too hard to keep track of ’, accord- ing to Defence officials. A dollar value of this part of the workforce is instead taken. This figure was not available at the time of publication as it was still pending as a Ques- tion on Notice from the last Senate Esti- mates hearing. The latest figures from the Defence Annual Report 2017-2018 include 164 new contracts let via AusTender with a value of $66.14 million, in addition to the existing 182 contracts worth $75.8 million; a total of $141 million.
How the new arrangements under the MSP are accounted for is also unclear.
Operations
Once again, it’s clear that the ADF is called upon to conduct a range of tasks around the world. From peacekeeping and disaster re- lief efforts, to nation building and training operations, the ADF has roughly 2,300 de- ployed personnel at any given time.
The figures listed below account for expenditure in the financial year ahead, noting that the sp-ending profile for op- erations this coming financial year is $90 million down on the previous year. This gap can be attributed to Operation Augury in the Philippines in response to a spike in Islamist-based terrorism threats which have now relatively subsided. Programs with no listed value are absorbed by Defence on a no win/no loss basis.
TABLE 2 TOP 30 SUSTAINMENT PRODUCTS BY 2019-20 FORECAST EXPENDITURE
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ACCORDION – Provide support to Operation HIGHROAD, OKRA, MANITOU and other ADF activi- ties from within the Gulf States – $215 million.
ARGOS – Contribute to the inter- national effort to enforce United Na- tions Security Council resolutions on North Korea.
ASLAN – Contribute to the United Nations mission in South Sudan. AUGURY – PHILIPPINES – Conduct exercise and peer participation activities with the Armed Forces of the Philippines focused on regional counter-terrorism – $40 million last year and figures not available in time for Budget publication. CHARTER – Contribute to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
Defence Assistance to the Civil Com- munity (DACC) – Contribute to Commonwealth and State/Territory Governments with emergency and non-emergency tasks as required. On a case by case basis, support events of national significance as requested by relevant authorities eg Commonwealth or Invictus Games
GATEWAY – Conduct northern Indian Ocean and South China Sea maritime surveillance patrols.
HIGHROAD – Ongoing contribu- tion to the NATO-led mission in Af- ghanistan supporting Afghanistan’s security, development and gover- nance – $86.8 million.
MANITOU – Contribute to maritime security in the Middle East Region (MER) including the Arabian Gulf,
Program name and number
Air
F/A18F Super Hornet & Growler CAF21
Multi Role Helicopter MRH90 CA48
Airborne Early Warning and Control System – AEWC CAF20 F-35 JSF CAF30
F/A-18 Hornet CAF02
Tiger ARH CA12
Hawk 127 Lead in Fighter CASF03
MH-60R Seahawk Romeo helicopter CN35
C-17A CAF19
KC-30A MRTT CAF22
C130J-300 Hercules CAF06
P-8A Poseidon CAF35
Air 5428 Pilot training CAF37
C27J Spartan CAF34
Joint
Army guided weapons and munitions CA 59 and CA60 JORN CAF13
RAAF guided weapons and munitions CAF 32 and CAF 33 Navy guided weapons and munitions CN37 and CN38 Battlespace Communications JP2072 CA31
Explosive Ordnance Manufacturing facilities CJC01
Air Traffic Control CAF12
Command and Intelligence Systems CA40
Joint
ADF clothing CA39
Commercial fleet vehicles CA19
Maritime
Collins class submarine CA10
Anzac class frigate CN02
AWD DDG CN40
Canberra class LHD CN34
Maritime cross platform CN49
Hydrographic support CN46
$M in 2019/2020
511 251 243 191 180 162 137 130 123 119 113 103 75 69
157 90 83 76 73 73 67 63
108 75
566 339 188 132 76 70
38 | May 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au