The campaign to reinstate 1st Armoured Regiment’s combat status

What more can be done?

More than 120 letters have been published in CONTACT thus far.  One received more than 10,000 views (how incredible this sounds, but it’s true).  Numerous letters have also been published in the Canberra Times.  

The injustice that was meted out to 1st Armoured Regiment has been made known across a wide spectrum of those concerned by what happened to the unit.  

The former Chief of Army, however, was insistent on the need to create an experimentation unit.  Although such a unit was important to him, it had to be seen to be the cheapest option available (because of the pressures placed on the defence budget by AUKUS).  

Given that 1 Armd Regt was already in Adelaide and the South Australian government was establishing a technology centre there, it was that unit that had to be the one sacrificed.

So far, there’s no indication that the current CA will take a different view.  

This, despite the fact that making 1 Armd Regt a non-combatant, has meant that 3 Brigade has been left short a tank squadron, a cavalry squadron and a battle-group headquarters.  

Which, of course, makes no sense at all! 

The 2026 National Defence Strategy tasks the ADF to:

“Defend Australia and our immediate region”; and  

“Deter through denial any potential adversary’s attempt to project power against Australia through our northern approaches”.

Given that 3 Brigade is supposedly an armoured brigade based in Townsville … how can weakening it by almost a third be justified by the creation of an experimentation unit?

Townsville acts as the principal mounting base for the ADF to project power and deploy troops into the Indo-Pacific. 

Despite this, the combat power that 3 Brigade can bring to bear has been significantly reduced.  Surely, something is amiss here?

It’s been posited before that the former CA had a fixation with creating an experimentation unit … a fixation to the detriment of national security overall.  

There can be little doubt that this was the case; the legacy of which now sits with the present CA.  Hopefully, she will come to understand the injustice that 1 Armd Regt has been dealt, and correct it.

The need to reinstate 1 Armd Regt’s combat status will continue to be raised in letters to editors.  

How long the campaign will last, is unknown.  What is known, however, is that there is an overwhelming need to salvage the heritage of 1 Armd Regt and return it to its RAAC combat role. 

Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Cameron, MC, RAAC (Ret’d)

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FILE PHOTO: Australian Army and Indonesian National Armed Forces soldiers, supported by an M1A1 Abrams tank, conduct a combined joint-force entry operation as part of Exercise Keris Woomera at Banongan Beach, Indonesia. Photo by Leading Seaman Rikki-Lea Phillips.

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