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CANBERRA - Australia will boost defence spending to A$22 billion ($24.7 billion) in the next 12 months as the military struggles to recruit and keep troops needed for a major expansion of its Army and the introduction of major new warships, aircraft and other hardware.
An A$2 billion increase over last year's defence budget will also fund a big boost in special forces and other troops in Afghanistan, the continued controversial Iraq deployment and East Timor operations.
The funding, announced by Treasurer Peter Costello last night, represents a doubling in the defence budget since the Coalition won power in 1996 and reflects deeply held Australian fears about its security.
A key target is the military's urgent need for people with the skills to run complex new defence equipment, ranging from sophisticated communications and intelligence systems to the proposed fleet of JSF strike fighters and two big, amphibious ships to carry helicopters and up to 1000 troops and their equipment.
Last week, the first contract was signed for the A$6 billion programme to provide the Air Force 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets to fill the strike gap between the retirement of the present F111 bombers and the new JSF jets.
The controversial decision to buy the Super Hornets was made after last year's Budget and followed the earlier, equally sudden, decision to acquire four giant C-17 Globemaster transports. Other major items on the shopping list include new helicopters and three air-defence destroyers.
But analysts have warned that with a booming economy soaking up skilled labour at high rates of pay, Defence will have to work hard to get the people it needs.
The Strategic Policy Institute noted after the last Budget that, despite spending A$500 million to attract personnel over the preceding five years, numbers had in fact fallen.
The importance of reversing this trend - recognised in Costello's 12th Budget with a A$2.1 billion, 10-year recruitment drive - has been compounded by the Government's plan to meet the increased tempo of defence operations with more manpower.
This is in addition to an A$1 billion package announced by Prime Minister John Howard last December.
The Army has been promised two new battalions, increasing combat troops by a combined 2600 at a cost of more than A$10 billion over 10 years, to produce a land force of 30,000.
In all, the Government intends to increase the military's fulltime strength by 6000, to 57,000 by 2016.
"This is a challenging target, particularly given the current strength of the Australian economy," Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said.
Moves announced in the Budget to attract people to the military include more highly subsidised home loans, better pay and a marketing drive.
But the demands placed on the Australian Defence Force have already prompted fears that it may be soon be overstretched, with 1450 troops in Iraq, 1100 in Timor, 480 in Afghanistan - rising to 950 by the middle of this year - and 300 in the Solomons and peacekeeping operations elsewhere.
A new paper by Strategic Policy Institute analyst Mark Thomson says that despite the extra costs, demands and strains on troops and equipment, the ADF is at present coping.
It has 6.3 per cent of its permanent active force deployed abroad: higher than New Zealand's 4 per cent, but well below the United Kingdom's 11.3 per cent and up to 20 per cent of US forces serving overseas.
