The first of two battalions to be raised under the Enhanced Land Force (ELF) initiative, 7 RAR was scheduled to be ‘operationally deployable’ by 2010.
“The Battalion has recently deployed its first combat team on operations in Iraq as the Baghdad Security Detachment; and its headquarters and a second company to Afghanistan as part of the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
“This means 7 RAR is operationally deployable well before the directed timeframe of 2010.”
The 7 RAR will relocate from Darwin to Adelaide in 2011 and continue to grow to a full mechanised battalion by 2013.