Proposed Force Structure for the Australian Army to Perform Maneuver Operations in the Littoral Environment Within the Region of Interest

At the commencement of the twenty-first century Australia finds itself questioning the employment of its military and once again seeking to define its role in an environment characterized by threats from nonstate actors and the advent of successive coalition wars in the Middle East. The world, and in particular Australia's region is characterized by areas of complex terrain in which jungle and increasingly urban terrain figure prominently. However, the need to meet the national interests in an operational environment of terrorism and regional threats while performing the dual concepts of Maneuver operations in the Littoral Environment (MOLE) and control operations doctrine requires a more robust force structure to meet those threats. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the doctrine of MOLE and control operations against a regional threat and to develop force structure recommendations to conduct MOLE in the complex terrain of Australia's region of interest.