Managing Military Capability: investing wisely for the future

These decisions are made difficult by the cost, long lead times to acquisition and the length that capital equipment will remain in service (in some cases 30-50 years).

Capability however, should not simply be viewed as just equipment. Capability is much more than this and needs to be understood in terms of the key elements that contribute to military capability:

• Organisation
• Equipment
• Personnel
• Training
• Doctrine (instructional manuals)
• Facilities
• Support

Many armed forces across the world have adopted this view and are ensuring that investment is balanced accordingly between these key elements. No one element is seen as more important than another - for example, poorly trained personnel with incorrect doctrine operating state of the art equipment will always fail even against an inferiorly equipped enemy that is better trained with correct doctrine. As such managing military capability requires a systemic approach that considers all these elements against strategic requirements and available budget.

One Australian company, Noetic Solutions has been engaged by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to assist in the development of tools that will assist in capability decision making. These tools are concepts of operations for a range of illustrative planning scenarios that identify potential military responses to crisis events.

The possible responses to these crises are able to employ a range of military capabilities that can therefore be tested against one another for their cost effectiveness. Noetic also produced a report that analysed the utility of these tools as they are currently employed by the ADF.

In addressing the broader issues mentioned above Noetic has assisted the ADF to develop its approach to Network Centric Warfare, reviewed its higher Command and Control requirements, assisted in its Strategic Workforce Planning Review, developed a human resources strategy for the Special Operations Command and has produced over 35 doctrinal publications covering operations, planning, training, logistics, communications, personnel and health.

Noetic is currently assisting the ADF to develop an 'end to end' capability management framework for information, and is also assisting with the ADF's Airlift Study that seeks to identify the best options to meet its strategic to tactical airlift requirements.