Australia might be gearing up for conflict in Iraq but there are few obvious signs at the Australian support base in the Middle East.
RAAF Super Hornet strike fighters, likely to take part in the coalition air attacks on Islamic State militants, have yet to arrive.
And nor have the RAAF Wedgetail airborne warning and control aircraft and KC-30A refuelling aircraft reached the Middle East.
Any air operations appear to be some weeks away.
But stuff is happening.
On Thursday Prime Minister Tony Abbott officially farewelled some personnel from the RAAF base at Williamtown in NSW.
"You are deploying in preparation for combat operations but it is an essentially humanitarian mission to disrupt and degrade the operations of ISIL, and in so doing, to protect the people of Iraq," Mr Abbott said.
However personnel began arriving in the Middle East earlier in the week to conduct preliminary planning.
Major General Craig Orme, commander of Australian forces in the Middle East, said the Australian force would be part of an international coalition led by the US.
The coalition's plans are still forming, he said.
Next big step will be US President Barack Obama's address to the UN where he will outline further his approach to this campaign.
Major General Orme said he was in very close consultation with coalition partners, visiting command centres across the theatre to discuss how we will operate.
"We are in very close consultation particularly with our American and British partners," he said.
For Australia to participate in this mission, the government still needs to give final approval and that would be subject to agreement on acceptable rules of engagement.
In 2003, Australian F/A-18 Hornets assisted in the invasion of Iraq but under more stringent rules of engagement. Consequently some pilots aborted missions rather than bomb where they were not certain of the target.
It is unclear just where Australian aircraft will be based for operations over Iraq.
Major General Orme said he would not go into operational details of how this would be done.
"But we can conduct operations from a range of locations and we have the ability to conduct operations from here," he said.
The government has also promised a 200-strong ground force, including special forces, to advise security forces inside Iraq.
"How we manage that support to the Iraqi forces is being worked through in detail at the moment," he said.
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