A third of Army far from fighting fit - survey

More than one-third of soldiers in the Australian Army cannot be classed as ready for war because of medical or dental problems, or for want of up-to-date weapons training, a report by the Auditor-General has found.

The finding, based on individual readiness notices that must be met by all soldiers, comes as the Army's workload is at its highest pitch since the Vietnam War.

With combat and training in Afghanistan and forces in East Timor, the Solomons and elsewhere the Army has almost 2400 troops abroad.

All must be assessed fit under minimum requirements first introduced in 1997 - when most Diggers overseas were acting as peacekeepers - but which now apply to a higher tempo of foreign deployments and more combat operations.

An assessment by the Chief of Army last October said 59 per cent of the nation's trained soldiers were ready for deployment abroad, but did not take into account more than 3200 fully trained Diggers who were for various reasons exempt from a readiness notice the day the count was taken. The Auditor-General's report said that with those members included, 53.6 per cent of the trained force met the "ready" requirement, 37.2 per cent were assessed as not ready, and 9.2 per cent were exempt.

More than half of those exempt from the assessment were already deployed on operations.

The report said the individual assessments were central to the Army's ability to send appropriately trained and equipped units and soldiers at short notice, and to be able to support them for as long as needed.

The Army defined "short notice" as 28 days in a 2006 revision of the individual readiness notice system, but dropped any definition of the term in its most recent review, in 2008.

The Chief of Army's 2008 preparedness directive further said that individual readiness was "the foundation of collective preparedness".

The system defines a minimum level of readiness that must be met by every member of both the regular Army and the reserves, including availability, proficiency, medical and dental fitness, physical fitness and proficiency with weapons.

Commanding officers are responsible for group assessments of soldiers' physical fitness and weapons proficiency, while medical and dental assessments are conducted annually by nurses and dentists.

The Auditor-General's report found more work needed to be done to assess the battle-readiness of the nation's soldiers.

It said that in the past five years more than 1600 had been discharged on medical grounds and that, in the overall statistics, more than 13,000 Diggers could not be classed as ready for action.

Almost one-quarter of the Army's trained strength was not ready because they were overdue for review in one or more areas, but more than 14 per cent had failed in at least one area.

More than half of those who were overdue for review were waiting for assessments of their physical condition or weapons proficiency.

The Army told the Government auditors that the system of individual readiness notices had moved on since it was first introduced and now failed to accurately reflect the real readiness level. It said the system was being reviewed.

ON REPORT
Out of the Australian Army's 27,800 regulars and 17,000 reservists:

* 5800 soldiers had failed weapons proficiency tests or were overdue for refresher courses.

* 7300 had failed a basic fitness test or had not completed one in the previous six months.

* 1500 were medically unfit.

* The condition of more than 2100 soldiers' teeth was so bad they could not go into action.