{"id":18820,"date":"2015-03-05T12:50:54","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T01:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=18820"},"modified":"2015-03-05T14:31:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T03:31:06","slug":"backwards-to-the-future-the-australian-army-after-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/backwards-to-the-future-the-australian-army-after-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Back(wards) to the future: the Australian Army after Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An<\/a><\/figure>\n

December 2014 saw the Australian Army wind down its longest ever warlike commitment\u2014after 13 years of continuous operations, Australian troops ceased combat operations in Afghanistan. Now for the first time in over a decade the Army\u2019s principal focus isn\u2019t a major deployment but developing itself to meet uncertain future threats and maintaining the skills and experience gained in Afghanistan. As the Australian Army becomes a peacetime army again, where to from here?<\/p>\n

After a period of post-Cold War stagnation in the 90s, the Army realised that it needed to modernise\u2014and quickly\u2014if it was to remain a credible land force. For over a decade the Army has been in a constant state of transition; \u2018Plan Beersheba<\/a>\u2019 is the latest iteration of a force modernisation program restructuring the Army into a more robust and modern force with some increased scope for amphibious operations<\/a>. As outgoing Chief of the Army Lieutenant General David Morrison puts it<\/a>, reform is about ensuring the service remains \u2018robust and relevant into the future\u2019.<\/p>\n

And therein lies the difficulty. Who knows what shape land warfare will take in the future, but must the Army be \u2018robust\u2019 enough to confront any<\/em> hypothetical future conflict? In 1989 when the Iron Curtain came tumbling down, the NATO armies\u2014trained and equipped to fight the vast Soviet armoured forces\u2014could never have predicted that in a few years they\u2019d be neck deep in humanitarian operations in Somalia or peacekeeping (or peacemaking?) in the Balkans.<\/p>\n

Historically speaking, the nature of warfare is fluid and constantly shifting, and the major challenge facing an army today is how to maintain its capabilities in order to be credible against a range of threats. This challenge is compounded greatly for small armies, like Australia\u2019s, with modest budgets and personnel and logistical limitations. In a climate of tight budgets<\/a>, the Australian Army cannot afford to be \u2018robust and relevant\u2019 across the full range of threats. The Army must pick its role and stick to it\u2014and to be blunt, it should stick to low-intensity warfare.<\/p>\n

Why? The Australian Army is very good at conducting low-intensity operations\u2014counterinsurgency, peacekeeping and \u2018military operations other than war\u2019\u2014the quintessential small wars. The Army has spent the last 60 years fighting only small wars or counterinsurgencies in Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and Iraq, and from these conflicts, it has gained immeasurable experience in the conduct of low-intensity warfare. Land Warfare Doctrine 1,<\/em> Army\u2019s philosophical guidance<\/a>, notes that even though the Army has taken part in major wars, its \u2018central theme\u2019 has always been \u2018patrolling, ambushing and minor infantry tactics\u2019\u2014fighting skills better suited to lower-intensity operations rather than modern high-intensity manoeuvre warfare. The Army even has a 36 page-long reading list<\/a> dedicated exclusively to counterinsurgency literature. These are strong indicators of the importance the Army places on low-intensity warfare.<\/p>\n

While the Army can support small commitments to lower-intensity conflict zones (13 years in Afghanistan proved that), its logistical base is too limited to supply and support a modern force under higher-intensity conditions for any great period of time. Also, it\u2019s worth mentioning that Australia as a nation may have difficulty absorbing the casualties associated with modern high-intensity combat. The number of Australian personnel killed in action in Afghanistan (41, all from the Army) was used frequently to justify calls from within<\/a> and outside<\/a> parliament for a withdrawal from that conflict.<\/p>\n

Current Army force modernisation will not abandon the Army\u2019s ability to engage in low-intensity conflict but will shift<\/a> the service\u2019s focus towards higher-intensity operations. Programs like Land 400\u2014the replacement<\/a> of the Army\u2019s entire fleet of wheeled and tracked fighting vehicles\u2014are intended to enhance Army’s ability to defeat a \u2018near peer<\/a>\u2019 enemy. But what nation that Australia will ever realistically face alone can meet the definition of near peer?<\/p>\n

The Army has spent 60 years fighting insurgents, and that\u2019s unlikely to change any time soon. Whilst conventional high-intensity wars remain possible but improbable, the number of low-intensity conflicts around the globe only seem to be increasing. There have been suggestions<\/a> that an Australian Army equipped to fight a near-peer enemy should be able to \u2018overmatch\u2019 an insurgent enemy, but I don\u2019t buy into that. The US Army that went into the 2003 Iraq War was equipped to fight a near peer enemy\u2014and easily defeated Iraq\u2019s conventional army\u2014but had immense difficulty in countering the asymmetric tactics used by Iraqi insurgents after Saddam\u2019s toppling.<\/p>\n

Without clear vision (and doctrine), the Army can easily distract itself from what it does best. Low-intensity may be unglamorous and dirty but it\u2019s the type of conflict the Australian Army is most experienced at, and therefore best suited to, fighting. As James Brown once argued<\/a>, the service\u2019s leadership needs to have a good look at \u2018what kind of fighting the Australian Army will need to do in the next decade\u2026 with a budget-limited force structure\u2019.<\/p>\n

As the Australian Army moves forwards into an uncertain future, it should cast an eye on its past, looking backwards and drawing on its deep past experience in low-intensity warfare to help shape its future role and structure.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Yates is a postgraduate doctoral research student at the University of Western Sydney. Image courtesy of Department of Defence<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December 2014 saw the Australian Army wind down its longest ever warlike commitment\u2014after 13 years of continuous operations, Australian troops ceased combat operations in Afghanistan. Now for the first time in over a decade the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314,"featured_media":18823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[488,128,279,1166,866,1165],"class_list":["post-18820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australian-army","tag-counterinsurgency","tag-force-structure","tag-future-of-warfare","tag-plan-beersheba","tag-small-wars"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBack(wards) to the future: the Australian Army after Afghanistan | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/backwards-to-the-future-the-australian-army-after-afghanistan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Back(wards) to the future: the Australian Army after Afghanistan | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 2014 saw the Australian Army wind down its longest ever warlike commitment\u2014after 13 years of continuous operations, Australian troops ceased combat operations in Afghanistan. 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