In January 1996, the CDF, General John Baker, announced significant changes to the ADF’s command and control arrangements.^[25] Baker believed Bennett’s initiatives had strengthened the position of CDF, but that he still had insufficient staff to command the ADF adequately. Baker announced that, at the strategic level, the single-Service staffs in Russell Offices would be absorbed as components of HQADF, while the Chiefs of Staff would be redesignated as component commanders to the CDF. The chiefs would change their titles to Chief of Navy, Chief of Army and Chief of Air Force, and their staffs would become Navy, Army and Air Force Headquarters respectively.

At the operational level, there was to be a single joint commander to be known as Commander Australian Theatre (COMAST), who would have a single headquarters (Headquarters Australian Theatre—HQAST) incorporating the existing Maritime, Land and Air Commands as components. The joint staff was to be kept to a minimum size by drawing on the expertise of the components, but would include joint logistics and joint movements staff. A common joint intelligence centre, the Australian Theatre Joint Intelligence Centre, would meet the needs of COMAST and the component commanders.

To enable him to develop operational level doctrine, COMAST was given control of the ADF Warfare Centre at Williamtown. To organise joint exercises he was given the Joint Exercise Planning Staff, previously under the CDF’s control in Canberra. Headquarters Special Forces was to move from Canberra and be placed under COMAST for operations. Headquarters Northern Command was to come under COMAST and be developed into a joint headquarters capable of conducting all defensive operations across northern Australia. Two deployable joint force headquarters, one based on the 1st Division headquarters in Brisbane and the other on COMFLOT’s staff, would command other joint operations as required. A new headquarters building with the latest information and communications facilities was to be built at a new site, its location to be decided later. This plan, the most sweeping for the ADF since its inception 20 years earlier, was designed to make it into a truly joint force.

In January 1997, Major General James Connolly took up the appointment as COMAST. His headquarters was in a Defence-owned multi-storey building next door to Maritime Headquarters in Potts Point, Sydney. The component commanders—Maritime, Land, Air and Special Operations—continued to work from their own headquarters buildings. Fortunately, Maritime Headquarters was next door to the COMAST building, Special Operations Command was almost next door, Land Headquarters was a couple of kilometres away and only Air Headquarters, at Glenbrook, was more than an hour away.

In some ways the establishment of HQAST facilitated the fundamental changes in Russell Offices that flowed from the report of the Defence Efficiency Review, released in April 1997. The formation of a proper operational headquarters made it possible to configure HQADF as a true joint strategic headquarters. The new structure came into existence on 1 July 1997. HQADF was dissolved and replaced by Australian Defence Headquarters headed jointly by the VCDF and the Deputy Secretary (Strategy and Intelligence). It consisted of the three Service headquarters and six staff divisions.

Another key change was the formation of a new joint headquarters and command—Support Command Australia—that was analogous to Australian Theatre Command in that both were at the operational level. The Navy, Army and Air Force Support Commanders became component commanders under the Commander Support Australia. Three years later, the Defence Acquisition Organisation and Support Command were amalgamated to form the Defence Materiel Organisation. The latter organisation included Joint Logistic Command, responsible for supporting all three Services.

In May 1997 Baker claimed that, with the new command arrangements, ‘we are probably at the forefront of military thinking in the world. I would like to claim a lot of responsibility for that.’ He admitted that there was ‘still a degree of rivalry between the Services and there always will be’, but he thought that it had been harnessed for the good of the total organisation.^[26]