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CANBERRA - The Australian Defence Force has tightened up weapons storage after it was found that anti-tank rocket launchers and other weaponry had been stolen and lost.
Among the changes will be a two-person policy, prohibiting unsupervised access by any soldier to any Defence weapons, explosive and munitions store.
Defence also will create a special weapons and munitions security section within the Defence Security Agency to conduct ongoing compliance audits and ensure security improvements are carried out.
Defence Minister Dr Brendan Nelson said an audit of defence weapons security launched in December last year found there had been significant improvements since 2000 but more needed to be done. He said the audit recommended improvements for the security of munitions and security arrangements applying to explosive ordnance.
"The government and defence treat the security of weapons, munitions and explosives very seriously. Defence has already started implementing many of the recommendations to further enhance security," he said.
"I have asked for a detailed, fully-costed implementation plan to be developed and I will be closely and regularly monitoring progress against each of the recommendations." The release of the audit findings and recommendations coincides with reports in News Ltd newspapers based on Defence documents obtained under freedom of information legislation.
These reports said a variety of weapons including 10 Steyr rifles, four pistols, two sniper rifles, a Minimi light machinegun, two Browning machineguns and a pump action shotgun plus some 5000 rounds of ammunition had disappeared between 1999 and 2006.
Defence confirmed that the weapons were unaccounted for but rejected suggestions that all had been stolen.
AAP
