AUSTRALIA must resist the seductive call that all will be well with a downsized military that stays at home, Army Chief Lieutenant General David Morrison says. General Morrison says the army is about the right size and is in good shape, hardened and honed by war.
The army of the future also needs to be able to fight irregular forces like the Taliban, he says.
It must also be able to engage in land combat against the forces of a nation state in the islands to Australia’s north.
“But it seems at least once every generation the Army must resist the seductive siren call that whispers, ‘Just bring our soldiers home and stay away from foreign wars. All will be well. We need not maintain a fully equipped standing Army. We can sit out the crises in faraway countries of which few have heard,” General Morrison said.
Addressing the Royal United Service Institute in Sydney, he said studies on the fiscal lessons of the past three decades showed it was vastly more expensive to restore disbanded or mothballed capabilities than it was to sustain them in the first place.
“That is why I am resolute in arguing that we do not seek the false economy of cutting either the size or the inventory of our army,” he said.
But Defence still needed to live within its means in a time of fiscal constraint, he said.
General Morrison said the army’s plan to develop a versatile sustainable force featured an amphibious capability that would make use of the navy’s two new large landing ships.
“This is a modest capability and should not alarm our friends in the region,” he said.
“Indeed, it better allows us to cooperate with them on the issues of shared concern from piracy, transnational crime, terrorism and disaster relief.
“And it allows us to send capable land forces to support our friends in times of crisis.”