The Australian Operational Service Medal is a campaign medal established on 22 May 2012 to recognise service by Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel on designated hazardous operations.

It may also be awarded to civilians who serve alongside the ADF on designated operations under specific conditions.

[3] To date, six ribbons for ADF service have been announced: The Australian Operational Service Medal (Civilian) was established to allow for recognition of Defence civilians, who had agreed to be subject to the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 and were employed overseas to support the operations of a deployed military force in a declared area of operations.

This variant will be (is) awarded to Australian Defence Force personnel who have served on border protection operations since 1997.

[23] Members of the Australian Defence Force must have served either an aggregate of 30 days either deployed or force assigned as a member of one of the declared operations, or were deployed or force assigned to a declared operation and completed 30 sorties from a unit assigned to the operation, so long as the sorties were conducted over a period of not less than 30 aggregate days with no more than one sortie counted per day.