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The Australian Army has announced a new program to cut bureaucratic red tape and help restore accountability to front-line commanders.
The program, Reducing Unnecessary Tasks to Help Lethality, Efficiency & Strategic Success (RUTHLESS), was established by the Deputy Chief of Army and led by Deputy Adjutant General Army Colonel Nick de Bont.
Since the program’s endorsement in August 2025, COL de Bont has engaged directly with front-line soldiers and non-commissioned officers in Townsville and Adelaide, gathering feedback on the administrative burdens that frustrate them most.
The most significant win to date has been the removal of the AF‑121 Army Personal Administration Data Quality Checklist, an annual requirement estimated to save about 32,000 hours of Army time. It was acknowledged that the form did not improve personal data accuracy and was largely redundant.
“If we don’t focus on our core function – winning the land battle – then we’re potentially going to learn some really harsh lessons in the next war, and those lessons will cost troops’ lives,” COL de Bont said.
“One area is our ability to understand and accept risk. There’s a view that risk management has been taken away from commanders, and policy and administration have replaced it.
“By removing unnecessary tasks, we’re giving that authority back to commanders to help ready them for the future fight.”
A second phase will capture and share the practical “cheat sheets” soldiers and units develop to navigate Army systems.
“We want to put them into simple language all soldiers can understand and collate them to share across Army, rather than confined to a particular clerk and his mates,” COL de Bont said.
RUTHLESS is currently looking to expand, with a call on ForceNet for “red tape targeteers” willing to challenge entrenched systems.
The creation of the program was directed by Deputy Chief of Army Major General Chris Smith, who said many frustrating processes were self-imposed by well-meaning staff or commanders over time.
“Much of the burden doesn’t come from the originating policy in a lot of cases,” he said.
“We are encouraging commanders to deviate from policy where doing so has a greater benefit, and where other less onerous mitigations can better deal with the risk. They merely need to seek their higher commander’s approval to do so.
“(In regard to the AF-121) we are asking whether a qualification on one rifle should count for all rifles, similar to how a civilian driver’s licence applies across a vehicle class. In other words, a rifle qualification may apply to all rifles for life,” he said.
“We will also consider whether the vehicle qualifications system is overburdened in the same way and not confuse the need for ongoing practice with an initial qualification.”
