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The 2nd Australian Division armoured combat brigade will transition to a security and response brigade from 2025.
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Under the upcoming changes, the 2nd Australian Division – largely part-time troops – will also take on the primary focus of security response and supporting integrated force manoeuvre across the north of Australia.
In the meantime, 2nd Australian Division brigades will maintain their locations across the country and Adelaide’s 9th Brigade will return to the 2nd Australian Division while remaining a composite brigade of part-time and full-time personnel.
Commander 2nd (Australian) Division Major General David Thomae said the Defence Strategic Review provided a clearly defined task for the changes.
“We must generate, deploy, and then sustain security and response task units to protect key areas in Australia’s north,” MAJGEN Thomae said.
“We must be able to do so quickly or at least with minimal warning time – the division must be able to fight tonight.
“The criticality of this mission cannot be overstated. The 2nd (Australian) Division must be ready to defend Australia and all that this entails.
“As part of a wider restructure of the Army, the 2nd (Australian) Division will transfer all university regiments under command of the 8th Brigade (Training) to Forces Command in July 2024,” he said.
“This will allow the 2nd (Australian) Division to be more operationally focused.”
Several changes to the training model for Army Reserve soldiers are also being introduced to get new soldiers into their units faster.
“From August 25, the Army began trialling a three-plus-two individual training model, providing three weeks of recruit training and two weeks of land combat training,” MAJGEN Thomae said.
“This will be followed by collective training tailored and focused on homeland defence tasks.
“We must ensure that everything we do – the way we structure, train and equip ourselves – is focused on the task of protecting Australia, and this task only.”
As Commander of Joint Task Force 629, MAJGEN Thomae said Army Reservists would play a key role in conducting domestic support operations, including humanitarian and disaster relief, with assistance from the regular Army and other services.
“The ADF has a wealth of recent experience in conducting operations in support of partner agencies, commencing with the 2019 and 2020 bushfires through to the COVID-19 response and, more recently, significant flooding events,” he said.
“It allowed the ADF to develop deep and continuing relationships with other government agencies and emergency services across the country.
“The 2nd Division has been tasked with homeland defence before, we have a proud history and this is absolutely a combat multiplier.
“We will leverage our history, not be tethered by it, and adapt again to ensure the division is ready to serve the country in whatever way its government and people ask of us.”
