9 May 2025
Headquarters Middle East (HQME) is a small team making a big impact by supporting missions and maintaining Australia’s presence in the region.
Based at Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), HQME has supported ADF missions and contingencies since 2003, operating under various names before becoming Operation Accordion in 2014.
HQME enables logistics, communications and support for up to 12 current operations, while providing a scalable hub from Al Minhad Air Base.
These include both Australian-led missions and multinational or UN-supported efforts.
The base remains Australia’s only forward-deployed headquarters and maintains strategic relationships within the region, particularly with the UAE.
While HQME does not command these missions, it ensures they are resourced and sustained.
Since the 2021 Afghanistan drawdown, Australia has maintained a smaller force at Al Minhad Air Base, focused on strategic access and regional crisis response.
The team has fewer than 50 core ADF staff and a total of 70 to 80 Australians on base at any time.
Its main priorities are sustaining operations, maintaining logistics infrastructure, enabling rapid crisis response and strengthening regional partnerships.
'We’ve got a lot of people over here doing good work in the name of Australia.'
Commander of Headquarters Middle East Captain Brett Westcott said they achieved the priorities through infrastructure, partnerships and scalability.
“We do it through both our air-side footprint, our access to an airfield in the Middle East, significant logistics infrastructure – warehouses, fuel, ammunition, explosive ordnance depots – and through a command and control node,” he said.
The command team can quickly grow to support a larger ADF force if there is a conflict, evacuation, or emergency in the region.
Captain Westcott said he was focused on ensuring personnel remain connected, supported and mission-focused throughout their deployment.
“Servicemen and women are fairly simple creatures – I know I am,” he said.
“If I've got good food, good accommodation, if I'm well looked after and well respected and have access to good facilities – be that a gym or the camaraderie of a focused team – then we're off to a good start.
“I’d like to think that if you ask anyone around this base how much control they’ve got over their own destiny, their input into the mission, they’d say they have a fair amount of ownership.”
Captain Westcott wanted Australians to know the ADF still contributed to important Middle East missions, particularly UN operations in challenging and dynamic regions.
He encouraged curiosity and appreciation of the ADF’s ongoing roles, even outside conflicts.
“We’ve got a lot of people over here doing good work in the name of Australia,” he said.
“Be curious about what your ADF is doing – we’re out here, we’re active and we’re making a difference.”
