Australian Defence Force

The Australian Defence Force is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests, and consists of three services: the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Air Force. It has just over 90,000 personnel, with 58,909 full-time active-duty personnel and 33,269 active reservists. During the first decades of the 20th century the Australian Government established the armed services as separate organisations, each with an independent chain of command; in 1976 the government made a strategic change and established the ADF to place the services under a single headquarters, and the degree of integration has increased since. It has been deployed around the world in combat, peacekeeping and disaster-relief missions.