The ADC is commanded by a two-starofficer, currently Major General Mick Ryan since January 2018. Each of the educational organisations is commanded by a one-star officer or Colonel (equivalent), titled Commandant of their organisation.
In 2019, the Australian Defence College implemented its biggest organisational reform in almost two decades. The changes included the amalgamation of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies and the Australian Command and Staff College to form the Australian War College, to focus on Joint Professional Military Education. Individual training delivered by the Australian Defence Force Warfare Training Centre, Peace Operations Training Centre, Defence Force Chaplains College, Defence International Training Centre, and Defence Force School of Languages was centralised in the Australian Defence Force Training Centre.
The first two organisations are sited at a campus at Weston, ACT.
History of Australian Defence College
The current Australian Defence College has its origins in the report of the Defence Efficiency Review from May 1997. The report recommended sweeping changes to officer education in the Australian Defence Force.
The Australian Defence College (ADC) was officially opened on 18 January 1999 by the Hon Bruce Scott MP, Minister Assisting the Minister of Defence. The founding Commander of the ADC was Rear Admiral Raydon Gates CSM, RAN.
The first two courses that were run at the new ADC in 1999 were the Defence Staff Course (DSC) and the Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC). In 2000 these two courses were merged to form one course, the Defence and Strategic Studies Course.
On 14 March 2001 the then Governor–General, Sir William Deane, officially opened the Australian Command and Staff College (ACSC). Prior to this date, middle management officer Command and Staff training was conducted at separate single Service staff colleges:[1]
On 1 October 2007 the Australian Defence Force Warfare Centre (ADFWC) came under command of the Commander ADC, as part of the Vice Chief of the Defence Force Group.
In July 2017, the Australian Defence College transferred to the new Joint Capabilities Group.
On 15 February 2019, the Hon Darren Chester (Australian politician) MP, Minister for Defence Personnel, officially opened the new Australian War College.
The War College delivers the Australian Defence Force's core Joint Professional Military Education continuum through the War College's two principal courses: The Australian Command and Staff Course and The Defence Strategic Studies Course.
Both courses use distinguished guest lecturers to give the course a practical context. Visiting Fellows include prominent academics from overseas.
Commandants
The following is a list of the Commandants, Australian War College.
In 2019, the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS) – formerly known as the Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies, and the Joint Services Staff College - was amalgamated with the Australian Command and Staff College to form the Australian War College, which is now responsible for the delivery of CDSS' main course, the Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC). The DSSC is intended for senior Service and civilian officers of mainly Colonel (equiv) rank.
The intensive Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC) primarily uses study modules from Australian universities. The DSSC is intended to give officers of the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Public Service and overseas participants the knowledge and skills required by senior leaders and managers operating in the national security environment. The interconnected thematic core curriculum blocks that are:
Development of Strategic Thought;
Command, Strategic Leadership and Management;
The Contemporary Strategic Setting;
Future Strategic Settings;
Australian Strategic policy – Past, Present and Future; and
Higher Command and Staff Studies.
Successful completion of the DSSC is considered necessary for promotion to Brigadier (equivalent) rank in the Australian Defence Force.
Past Principals Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS)
The following is a list of the Principals, Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies.
Principal
Term began
Term ended
Paul Varsanyi
18 January 2000
5 January 2005
Myra Rowling
6 January 2005
8 December 2005
Maurice Hermann
5 January 2006
3 December 2006
Dr Alan Ryan
4 December 2006
January 2012
Ian Errington
January 2012
February 2018
Colonel Charles Weller
February 2018
December 2018
Australian Command and Staff Course (ACSC)
The Australian Command and Staff Course intellectually prepares future leaders to fulfil command and staff appointments in single-Service, joint, multi-national and interagency environment.
The Australian Command and Staff College (ACSC) conducts courses intended to prepare field ranking officers (Major / Lieutenant Commander / Squadron Leader) and their Defence civilian equivalent for staff duties and subsequent promotion to command positions.
Past Commandants Australian Command and Staff College (ACSC)
The following is a list of the Commanders, Australian Command and Staff College.
At about 4.15pm on 30 January 2006, part of the roof collapsed into the staff offices on the second floor used by the ACSC at the Geddes building. Several staff had minor injuries.[2] Classes were moved to the ADFA campus while restoration work was completed.
Australian Defence Force Training Centre (ADFTC)
Badge of the Australian Defence Force Training Centre
The Australian Defence Force Training Centre was stood up in 2019 following the Australian Defence College organisational changes and centralised joint individual training for Defence, Government Agencies and selected foreign students.
The ADFTC is as follows:
Australian Defence Force Warfare Training Centre, providing individual joint training for Defence, Government Agencies and selected foreign students, as well as assisting with training of joint headquarters staff for operations and job-specific training in the concepts of joint warfare.
The Peace Operations Training Centre is a joint, inter-agency and multi-national training establishment and a recognised United Nations (UN) training provider. It prepares Australian military, foreign military and civilians from other government departments to deploy on operations. The Peace Operations Training Centre also delivers the Australian Defence Force Gender Advisor Course, training students to apply a Gender perspective into policy, and planning at all levels.
Defence Force Chaplains College provides Initial, Intermediate and Senior level instruction to Australian Defence Force Chaplains.
Defence Force School of Languages, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, teaches and assesses Australian Defence Force and civilian members in Languages Other Than English (LOTE). The courses are unique within Australian academic institutions due to the intensity of delivery and the focus on military and strategic contexts.
Defence International Training Centre is the entry point for international military members on arrival in Australia, providing language training, teacher training and cultural familiarisation courses. Defence International Training Centre is a major contributor to Defence regional engagement especially in the South-East Asian and South Pacific regions.
Commandants
The following is a list of the Commandants, Australian Defence Force Training Centre.
The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) is the educational institution for trainee officers of the Australian Defence Force, offering three- and four-year primary degrees, and postgraduate degrees.
ADFA's academic services are provided by the University of New South Wales Canberra and academic and some support staff are employed by the university. Military staff conduct a separate Joint Military Education and Training program to prepare the trainee officers for their military careers.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It has three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The ADF has a strength of just over 90,000 personnel and is supported by the Department of Defence and several other civilian agencies.
The Royal Military College, Duntroon, also known simply as Duntroon, is the Australian Army's officer training establishment. It was founded at Duntroon, in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, in 1911 and is at the foot of Mount Pleasant near Lake Burley Griffin, close to the Department of Defence headquarters at Russell Hill. It is comparable to the United Kingdom's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Duntroon is adjacent to the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), which is Australian Defence Force's tri-service military academy that provides military and tertiary academic education for junior officers of the Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy.
Staff colleges train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For example, an officer may be sent to various staff courses: as a captain they may be sent to a single service command and staff school to prepare for company command and equivalent staff posts; as a major to a single or joint service college to prepare for battalion command and equivalent staff posts; and as a colonel or brigadier to a higher staff college to prepare for brigade and division command and equivalent postings.
The Indian Defence services have established numerous academies and staff colleges across India for the purpose of training professional soldiers in military sciences, warfare command and strategy, and associated technologies.
The Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) is located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama and is the United States Air Force's intermediate-level Professional Military Education (PME) school. It is a subordinate command of the Air University (AU), also located at Maxwell AFB, and is part of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.
The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) is a tri-service military Academy that provides military and academic education for junior officers of the Australian Defence Force in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). In 2016 the Academy began accepting civilian students in its undergraduate courses.
The Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) is a defence service training institution of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
The Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) is situated at Batalanda, Makola (South) 12 Kilometers away from Colombo and its aim to develop the professional knowledge and understanding of experienced officers of the Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy & the Sri Lanka Air Force to prepare them for the ranks of junior field officers in the army and the respective ranks of the Navy and Air force. The DSCSC was formerly known as the Sri Lanka Army Command and Staff College (ACSC).
General Sir John Gordon Noel Wilton, was a senior commander in the Australian Army. He served as Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the Army's professional head, from 1963 until 1966, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CCOSC), forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1966 until 1970. His eight-year tenure as senior officer of first the Army and then the Australian military spanned almost the entire period of the nation's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Air Vice Marshal Julie Hammer, is an Australian engineer and a retired senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). She was the first woman to be promoted to one-star rank, and also the first woman to be promoted to two-star rank, in the Australian Defence Force. She was also the first woman to command an operational unit in the RAAF.
The Australian Defence Organisation (ADO) is composed of the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Australian Defence Force (ADF), and the Australian Public Service government department, the Department of Defence which is composed of a range of civilian support organisations.
Air Marshal Sir Alister Murray Murdoch, was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1965 to 1969. Joining the Air Force in 1930, Murdoch trained as a seaplane pilot and participated in an Antarctic rescue mission for lost explorers in 1935. During World War II, he commanded No. 221 Squadron RAF in Europe and the Middle East, and later occupied senior positions on the staff of RAAF formations in the South West Pacific. His post-war appointments included Commandant of RAAF College from 1952 to 1953, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Training Command from 1953 to 1955, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1958 to 1959, and AOC Operational Command from 1962 to 1965.
Air Marshal Raymond George (Ray) Funnell, is a retired senior commander of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1987 until 1992. A graduate of RAAF College, he began his career flying CAC Sabre jet fighters in Australia and South East Asia in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1972 to 1975 he commanded No. 6 Squadron, during which time the General Dynamics F-111C swing-wing bomber entered Australian service. He held senior staff posts in the early 1980s. In 1986, he was promoted to air marshal and became the inaugural Vice Chief of the Defence Force. Appointed CAS in July 1987, Funnell was closely involved in the development and dissemination of air power doctrine. He retired from the RAAF in October 1992 following his term as CAS, and was founding Principal of the Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies from 1994 to 1998. Since then he has served on various Federal Government committees on immigration and detention.
Major General Simone Louise Wilkie, is a retired Australian Army officer who was the Australian Deputy National Commander in the War in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012. She was Assistant Chief of Staff to General David Petraeus during the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, and was the first female Commanding Officer of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and Commandant at the Army Recruit Training Centre at Kapooka. In March 2013 the Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith, announced her promotion to major general to take over as Commander of the Australian Defence College in July 2013.
Air Chief Marshal Satish Kumar Sareen, PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC was the Chief of Air Staff of Indian Air Force from 31 December 1995 till 31 December 1998.
The Chief of Joint Capabilities (CJC) is the head of the Joint Capabilities Group (JCG) in the Australian Department of Defence, part of the Australian Defence Organisation. This position was created on 1 July 2017. The current chief is Lieutenant General John Frewen, who was appointed to the position in September 2021.
The Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College is the head and overall in-charge of the Defence Services Staff College. The Commandant of the Academy is a Three-star rank officer from the Indian Army. He is supported by the chief instructors of the Army, Navy and Air wings, Major General in charge of Administration, Brigadier General Staff and a staff officer.
Major General Susan May Coyle, is a senior officer in the Australian Army. She joined the army as a reservist in 1987 and, following training at the Australian Defence Force Academy, was commissioned into the Royal Australian Corps of Signals in 1992. She has commanded the 104th Signal Squadron (2003–04), 17th Signal Regiment (2009–10), Task Group Afghanistan (2015) and the 6th Combat Support Brigade (2017–19), and has deployed on operations to East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Afghanistan. She was appointed Commander Joint Task Force 633, with responsibility for all Australian operations in the Middle East, from January to November 2020. She was the first woman to command the task force, which had oversight for 1,200 personnel under Operation Accordion. Coyle was Head Information Warfare from January 2021 to November 2022, when she was appointed Commander Forces Command.
Air Vice Marshal Stephen Leslie Meredith, is a senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He joined the RAAF as a navigator in 1986. He has commanded No. 6 Squadron RAAF (2006–08), No. 42 Wing RAAF (2008–10), the Aerospace Operational Support Group RAAF (2014–16) and the Combined Air Operations Centre (2017), and has served on operations in the Gulf War, War in Afghanistan and in the International military intervention against ISIL. He served as Head Force Integration from 2017 to 2019, before being appointed Deputy Chief of Air Force from July 2019 to January 2023.
Major General Cheryl Ann Pearce, is a senior officer in the Australian Army and a former deputy commissioner in the Australian Border Force. She graduated from the Officer Cadet School, Portsea and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police in 1985. She has commanded the Defence Police Training Centre (2003), 1st Military Police Battalion (2006–08), Task Group Afghanistan (2016) and Australian Defence Force Academy (2017–18). Pearce has served on operations in East Timor and Afghanistan, and was Force Commander, United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus from January 2019 to January 2021. Pearce retired from full-time service in the army following her return from Cyprus and was appointed Deputy Commissioner Ports and Enforcement in the Australian Border Force in August 2021. She returned to the army in June 2023, on being appointed Deputy Chief of Army.
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