Australia

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Introduction - Australia:
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Military - Australia:
Military branches	Australian Defense Force (ADF): Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, Special Operations Command (2006)

Military service age and obligation	16 years of age for voluntary service; women allowed to serve in Army combat units in non-combat support roles (2001)

Manpower available for military service	males age 18-49: 4,943,676 females age 18-49: 4,821,264 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service	males age 16-49: 4,092,717 females age 16-49: 3,983,447 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually	males age 18-49: 142,158 females age 16-49: 135,675 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures percent of gdp	2.4% (2006)

Disputes international	East Timor and Australia agreed in 2005 to defer the disputed portion of the boundary for fifty years and to split hydrocarbon revenues evenly outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area covered by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty; East Timor dispute hampers creation of a revised maritime boundary with Indonesia in the Timor Sea; Indonesian groups challenge Australias claim to Ashmore and Cartier Islands; Australia closed parts of the Ashmore and Cartier Reserve to Indonesian traditional fishing and placed restrictions on certain catch; regional states continue to express concern over Australias 2004 declaration of a 1,000-nautical mile-wide maritime identification zone; Australia asserts land and maritime claims to Antarctica (see Antarctica); in 2004 Australia submitted its claims to UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to extend its continental margins covering over 3.37 million square kilometers or roughly thirty percent of its claimed exclusive economic zone; since 2003, Australian Defense Force leads the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) to maintain civil and political order and reinforce regional security