From November when the Irish Battalion withdraws from service with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), the Defence Forces will have no battalion-scale operations, or real infantry work, as one military source put it.
The largest mission will be a contingent of up to 200 soldiers serving with the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) but this will consist of VIP transport, communications and security duties at the UN Headquarters in Eritrea.
This should be in place by the end of this year.
The rest of the UN commitment takes the form of a small infantry contingent in East Timor (around 50 soldiers) and much smaller observer missions.
It has been anticipated that the next major foreign infantry mission undertaken by the Defence Forces will be to provide a light infantry battalion to serve in peacekeeping duties with the putative European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF). This 60,000-strong force is due to be operational by 2003.
Last November, after the Government committed itself to providing a battalion strength contingent (about 850 soldiers), a section was set up at Defence Forces Headquarters at Parkgate Street in Dublin and at the Curragh Camp.
Preparations for this battalion had become the focus of Army training and this will be stepped up with the return of the battalion from Lebanon in November. The soldiers will have to be ready to be "inter-operable" with the soldiers of other EU forces.
A group of senior officers, which at times includes two generals, is in place in Brussels to liaise with the new force management.
Last month, soldiers began training at the Curragh with the first of the 40 new armoured personnel carriers (APCs), costing around £1 million each, which are due to arrive from the Swiss manufacturers between now and January 2002. Six of the Mowag APCs arrived in Dublin last month and the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, provided an option to purchase another 40 APCs next year, though no commitment has been made.
Military sources say that a light infantry battalion of the type needed to serve in theatres like the Balkans would need at least 80 APCs with support vehicles.
The Department of Defence is seeking tenders for light tactical support vehicles, like the US Army's Humvees, and again up to 80 of these vehicles might be needed.
The Air Corps is also in the final stages of examining tenders for up to five medium lift helicopters. These would be used for both troop movement and maritime search and rescue missions. These helicopters will probably cost £15 million each.
The Air Corps is also to receive some five new jet training aircraft. Manufacturers will be invited to submit tenders for these towards the end of this year.
Together with a £100 million building programme for new barracks, warehouses, garages and ancillary accommodation over three years the Defence Forces is undergoing the largest transformation in its history. Total spending in the region of £250,000 will be largely covered by revenue raised under Mr Smith's decision to sell off six barracks and any property held by the Department of Defence deemed "surplus to requirements" and from savings made through voluntary redundancies in the Defence Forces.
However, military sources now say that the point of all this reorganisation may be lost if there is a decision to re-evaluate the State's commitment to the European Rapid Reaction Force. One source described military management as "worried that if there is a withdrawal from the European Rapid Reaction Force the Defence Forces will again be relegated to the second league".
No decision has yet been made in response to the Nice Treaty No vote but there has been no reiteration of the State's commitment to ERRF participation. Military sources point out that straw polls of people voting against the Nice proposals showed that many felt it would affect the Republic's neutrality or lead Irish troops to become involved in non-peacekeeping military operations as part of an EU army.
As part of its campaign, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) made reference to body bags returning to homes from Ballyfermot to Ballina. It also used a poster of a soldier being carried off a battlefield on a stretcher with the slogan, "No to NATO, No to Nice".
This argument apparently was more effective that the Government and main Opposition party's rebuttal that Irish troops would serve only in UN-mandated peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions, as it does now.
Simultaneously, the ERRF commitment remains caught in a debate between the major participating nations. There is considerable opposition to the ERRF in Britain where Tory and ex-military figures have been running a campaign against it saying it would lead to the break-up of NATO. The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has been insisting that the embryonic Rapid Reaction Force set up by the EU will not be an alternative to the alliance. President Bush, during his visit to Europe, has been expounding the need to retain a strong NATO as well.
After the No vote, a number of British newspapers speculated that the Republic might be forced to rethink its position on the ERRF. The Guardian reported that an alternative being considered by the Government is "to negotiate a declaration making clear that plans for an EU military rapid reaction force will not compromise Ireland's neutrality - a key claim by anti-Nice campaigners, led by Sinn Fein".
The London Times Brussels correspondent reported that one option for Ireland would be an opt-out from the EU's proposed rapid reaction force "to appease concerns that this would jeopardise the country's military neutrality". It also reported that Mr Brian Cowen "blamed the upset on `misinformation' put out in a well-funded No campaign which had persuaded voters that their boys would come back in body bags after being sent to serve with the EU's rapid reaction force".
Until then sources say that the preparations for participation in the ERRF will continue. The Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen Colm Mangan, has stated that his soldiers will be ready to serve by the 2003 deadline. That commitment, the sources say, still stands.