Will the RAAC have a role in the 2026 National Defence Strategy?

“The next National Defence Strategy (NDS) should deliver something Australia has long lacked: a strategic narrative that tells the public what truly matters to our security, what threatens it, and how Defence will protect it.”  
Alliance of Defence Service Organisations, 11 December 2025

This would seem fundamental to any national defence strategy; how then could it have been lacking until now?  Possibly for the same reason that the role of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) in our Nation’s defence has become moribund.  

3 Brigade (Townsville) was designated to become an armoured brigade in the 2023 Defence Strategic review.  Yet it has lacked one tank squadron, a cavalry squadron and a battle-group headquarters for all this time.  Furthermore, there is no indication that this is about to change any time soon.

Reports in the Defence media suggest that the ADF’s force structure in coming years, will be dictated by any funds ‘left over’ after the AUKUS submarines have been paid for.  

The first Virginia-class submarines are to be delivered in 2032.  What happens before then is raising all sorts of concerns.  While the life of the Collins submarines is being extended to fill the gap, AUKUS submarines have been cast in the role of providing the sole basis for our national defence.  It has been posited that the delay in these becoming available, presents an enormous threat to our national security.  

The Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) has been decimated recently.  The Chief of Army decided that 1st Armoured Regiment would be stripped of its tanks and made into a non-combatant unit to evaluate emerging technologies.  As a result, the two RAAC regiments that should’ve formed 3rd (Armoured) Brigade, are now confined to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment alone.  

Added to the slide in RAAC capability is the fact that, to help compensate for the loss of 1 Armd Regt, 2 Cav Regt has been increased in strength to two tank squadrons and two cavalry squadrons; the unit becoming the first with dual roles in the RAAC.  

Unfortunately, these roles are incompatible for a single unit … intelligence gathering and infantry fire support, as far apart as it’s possible to get.  It could be made to work as a peacetime expedient; but any operational undertaking would require the creation of two separate units, each specialising in its own role.  

The mantra ‘You train as you would fight’ becomes an impossibility in these circumstances.  2/14 Light Horse Regiment (QMI) is the exception … the only RAAC (ARA) unit able to train specifically for its core role of armoured reconnaissance.  

How then, will the National Defence Strategy treat 3 Brigade’s dual-role 2 Cav Regt?   Will it be regarded as a tank unit, or a cavalry unit, or half and half?   Such options are not feasible in an operational sense, which is the essence of the NDS.  

The recommendation of the RAAC Corps Conference was for RHQ 1 Armd Regt to be formed in Townsville, to command the tank squadrons; with 2 Cav Regt returning to its Cavalry role. It is assumed that this is the approach that the NDS will adopt (how can it do otherwise?).  

A National Defence Strategy must predicate itself on the Nation’s ability to respond to threats.  A peacetime (2 Cav Regt organisation) can’t be allowed to influence an operational strategy. 

There is no doubt that the RAAC is in the worse situation it has ever been in terms of its ability to conduct mobile warfare.  The rot started when 1 Armd Regt was stripped of its tanks. It was made worse when 2 Cav Regt was made a dual-role unit.  

Is there hope?  

As long as there are those among us who are prepared to stand up and highlight the injustices that the Chief of Army has imposed on the RAAC, there is always the possibility that the Corps will be returned to its rightful place on the right of the line.    

Note:  Battle-Lab’s Major Andrew Somerville has recently commissioned a wargame called ‘Australian Combined Arms’.  He’s been asked how 2 Cav Regt’s dual roles of infantry fire support and intelligence gathering are represented within the one unit and whether this creates confusion.  He’s declined to respond.    

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

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FILE IMAGE: Austal Defence Shipbuilding Australia concept image depicting Landing Craft Medium and Heavy vessels conducting a beach landing.

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