Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

The Government has today decided to send six Australian imagery analysts to the Middle East. The team of highly-trained specialist analysts, from the Royal Australian Air Force, will be involved in coalition assessments of battle damage in Iraq.

The analysts will complement Australia's existing contribution to disarm Iraq, Operation Falconer. They represent a niche capability resident in only the most professional of air forces and will deploy this week for up to three months.

The current focus of the air campaign is to strike high-value military and Iraqi leadership targets. Coalition air forces have gone to unprecedented lengths to avoid civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.

The analysts' job will be to examine and analyse imagery taken by aircraft following air strikes on military targets in Iraq to determine the success of their missions and inform future targeting decisions. Imagery intelligence ensures the coalition air forces can maintain their level of target accuracy, avoid duplication of effort and continue to ensure the safety of much of the Iraqi population.

The analysts will not have a direct combat role and will not be operating in Iraq, but they will contribute to the effectiveness of the air campaign that is crucial to destroying the Iraqi military apparatus and disarming Iraq.

The Government's decision is in response to a request from the US Central Command, which values highly the specialist skills of Defence imagery analysts.

The deployment will be managed within the overall personnel limit set by the Government for Operation Falconer of about 2000.