A mystery to some and a nuisance to others is the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police. Irrespective of where one sits in the divide, it is an asset that many planners and commanders have little knowledge of how to employ. Yet military police (MP) are present in almost all staff and joint planning teams. They are intimately integrated with manoeuvre elements in the close fight and provide critical rear-echelon security to enable the war fighters to fight wars. So, what are these scarlet-capped assets doing when the speed gun isn’t within reach? MP support can be broken down into three fundamental blocks – formation C2 support, battlefield clearance support, and close support. Whilst the latter two may seem similar, there are several key differences.

Conclusion

The Military Police provide a magnitude of support capabilities that many are not aware of – if you would like to take a deeper dive in to MP capability you can find more information here: is LP 0.3.0 Employment of Military Police. However, the best method of determining any specialist elements’ capacity to support is to engage with the subject matter expert (SME) directly, so don’t be afraid to approach your nearest provost and ask how they can support your mission – nine times out of ten the speed gun isn’t even within reach.