The Maritime Border Command (MBC) is

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's principal civil

maritime security Maritime security is an umbrella term informed to classify issues in the Maritime transport, maritime domain that are often related to national security, marine environment, economic development, and human security. This includes the world's ocea ...

agency, a de facto

coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

, operating in the maritime domain to ensure compliance with Australia's maritime legislation by foreign and domestic non-state actors. It is responsible for border protection in the exclusive economic zone of Australia and its 59,700 kilometres of coastline and issues such as

illegal fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes pl ...

and exploitation of natural resources, maritime terrorism and piracy, biosecurity threats, and

marine pollution Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial waste, industrial, agricultural pollution, agricultural, and municipal solid waste, residential waste; particle (ecology), particles; noise; excess carbon dioxi ...

. It is a multi-agency command within the Department of Home Affairs comprising both

Australian Border Force The Australian Border Force (ABF) is a federal law enforcement agency, part of the Department of Home Affairs (Australia), Department of Home Affairs, responsible for offshore and onshore border control, border enforcement, investigations, comp ...

(ABF) and

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the Armed forces, military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests. It consists of three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Aus ...

(ADF) personnel, led by a

rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

in the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

. In 2024, Brett Sonter became the Commander of MBC.Rear Admiral Lee Goddard
/ref> The command was established in 2005 and was originally named the Joint Offshore Protection Command. In October 2006 it was renamed to Border Protection Command and was again retitled to its current name in July 2015 to coincide with the establishment of ABF.

Structure

The MBC is a joint unit of the

(the

Patrol Force and the

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

Surveillance and Response Group) and the

( Marine Unit and Coastwatch aircraft). Its headquarters are in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

and is part of the Operations Group of the ABF. The ABF is part of the

Australian Department of Home Affairs The Department of Home Affairs is a Government department, department of the Government of Australia that is charged with responsibilities for national security, protective services, emergency management, border control, immigration, refugees, ...

. Since September 2013, the MBC has supported the Operation Sovereign Borders Joint Agency Taskforce. The ADF elements of MBC are commanded from Northern Command in

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...

. The

Australian Federal Police The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the principal Federal police, federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government responsible for investigating Crime in Australia, crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth ...

supports the MBC and particularly the ABF with criminal investigations, law enforcement and

national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...

matters.

Role

The MBC delivers a coordinated national approach to offshore protection by operating as a single maritime surveillance, response and interception agency. It detects and deters a wide range of illegal activities using a combination of ABF and ADF aircraft and vessels. ABF response assets include Coastwatch aircraft and Marine Unit patrol vessels. Its activities take place under a variety of legislation covering areas such as customs, fisheries, quarantine, immigration, environment and law enforcement. The MBC is responsible for coordinating and controlling operations to protect Australia's national interests against the following maritime security threats: * illegal exploitation of natural resources * illegal activity in protected areas * unauthorised maritime arrivals * prohibited imports/exports * maritime terrorism * piracy * compromise to bio-security * marine pollution.

Commanders

References

External links

Border Protection Command
* Rear Admiral Russ Cran

{{Coast guards Commonwealth Government agencies of Australia Federal law enforcement agencies of Australia Commands of the Australian Defence Force Borders of Australia