Armour combines firepower, mobility, protection and networked situational awareness to generate shock action and overmatch in close combat.

[4] For most of the 1930s the ATC remained an embryonic organisation containing only a small cadre of permanent staff and the militia 1st Tank Section.

These, in conjunction with the militia 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions, which included the Australian Light Horse (ALH) regiments of First World War fame, comprised Australia's mobile mounted combat forces.

In the early stages of the war, the ATC and ALH provided many personnel who formed the basis of the mechanised divisional cavalry and armoured regiments.

As a result of the increasing mechanisation of the army, and commensurate waning of horse mounted troops, the ALH was also absorbed into the AAC on 8 May 1942.

[6] While many individual units served overseas with distinction, by the end of the war these large formations were broken up and much of the wartime AAC was demobilised with the rest of the force.

The Australian Armoured Corps was granted the Royal prefix in recognition of its service during the Second World War on 14 December 1948.

[7] The role of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps is to locate, identify, destroy or capture the enemy, by day or night, in combination with other arms, using fire and manoeuvre.

[21] While additional 'numbered' Regular RAAC units were created in the following decades, e.g., the 1st Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron, CMF unit titles continued to reflect the numbers of amalgamated former Light Horse regiments and their territorial affiliations which signify their links to their recruiting catchment areas, e.g., the 6th New South Wales Mounted Rifles, 7th/21st Australian Horse and 8th/13th Victorian Mounted Rifles.

However, as a result of the adoption of the Forward Defence Policy and subsequent restructure of the Army, the brigade headquarters and various units were either disbanded or amalgamated by the end of that decade.

Army Reserve units generally adopted a composite structure of Cavalry and Armoured Personnel Carrier squadrons.

[27] This approach integrated 1st Armoured Regiment, the 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, 144th Signal Squadron and elements of the 1st Combat Service Support Battalion into the 9th Combat Brigade in late 2022; and was earmarked to introduce into service the self-propelled artillery capability to be acquired under Land 8113.

[27] Notably, the April 2023 response to the Defence Strategic Review directed Army to provide an Armoured Brigade capability.

However, these elements continue to operate the M113AS4 APC which was considered obsolete by the Australian National Audit Office in 2012 even after Defence had upgraded 431 of the legacy vehicles.

[30]Commentary from Andrew Greene of the ABC in early September 2023 indicated that the Army was about to undergo another restructure stemming from the Defence Strategic Review, which would directly impact the RAAC.

[31] Others have suggested that the 'Army is change fatigued' [32] which may be contributing to retention and recruiting issues and the desire to remove underpopulated 'hollow' units from the force.

[39] This plan was confirmed on 28 September at a press conference by the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, at Townsville[40] with further detail in other reporting.

These include the Second World War, the post-war occupation of Japan, South Vietnam, Somalia, Rwanda, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Members of the corps have participated in a wide range of individual and small group deployments from Korea to the Sudan and the Solomon Islands as well as domestic support operations in Australia and its territorial waters.