Aug-Sep-Oct, Nov-Dec 1971-Jan 1972 - Navy League of Australia

"Calling Tugs attending"CONSCRIPTION AND AUSTRALIAN MILITARY CAPABILITYby Darcy McGaurrPrice $1.50(Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence. No. 11)A publication of The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University,Canberra.Established TowageJ. FENWICK & CO. PTY. LTD.Services at Sydney, Botany Bay, Newcastle, Port Kembla, Port Lalta, TasmaniaA SATISFACTORY CONNECTION THE NAVY DEPT ANDBritish Box Co. Pty. Ltd.67-3054 — PHONE — 67-3054Who are Proud to be Associated with theR.A.N, in the Supply ofWOODEN CRATES & PALLETSFor All Enquiries . .MR. H. KAYBRITISH BOX CO. PTY. LTD.Coward Street, W/Mascot, N.S.W.This is the eleventh in a series ofpapers published by the Strategicand Defence Studies Centre of theAustralian National University and.like its predecessors, is a valuablework for the serious student ofcurrent affairs. As Australia'scommitment to the Vietnam wardraws to a close, a study of the costeffectiveness of conscription is notonly timely, but overdue. Mr.McGaurr advances detailedarguments to support his case that'conscription is the most expensivesystem of military manpowerprocurement" (page 25).From his own research and byreferring to several prestigiousAmerican works, including theReport of the President'sCommission on an All-VolunteerArmed Force (Chairman: Thomas S.Gates). Mr. McGaurr shows, by aseries of graphs and tables, severaldifferent views on the expectedsupply of volunteers for the armedforces and the costs to thecommunity involved in the varioussystems.Mr. McGaurr goes on to give a briefreview of the likely areas of deploymentof Australian forces in the nearfuture — South East Asia.Malaysia/Singapore. Papua NewGuinea and the Australian Mainland.Where South East Asia (excludingMalaysia/Singapore) is concerned,he quite correctly points out thatthere would be no significantAustralian involvement unlessAmerican ground forces wereinvolved — an unlikely event afterVietnam.Where the Malaysia/Singaporeregion is concerned. Mr. McGaurrmakes valuable comments aboutthe type of force to be committed tothe area, particularly in regard tothe question of technology asopposed to manpower. His suggestionof a "Strike Force" certainlybears close investigation.When he turns to the defence ofthe Australian mainland. Mr.McGaurr makes the point that sincethere does not appear to be anythreat of invasion within the next tenyears. "Australia's force structureshould be such as to provide not somuch a present capability as apotential capability .... A conscripttrained in 1971 will not be a valuabledefence asset in the event of aninvasion in 1985" (not under ourpresent system, anyway). He states(and I agree with him) that Australiashould be spending its resources onitems with a longer term pay-off —dockyards, ships, aircraft, airfields.roads etc. Whilst this iscertainly true, there is even more tobe said: Australia should be devotinga lot more of its defence budgettowards building a local aircraftindustry with a capacity to designand build multi-engine fixed-wingand rotary-wing aircraft. Soldierscan be trained (or re-trained)comparatively speedily, but acapacity to design and build aircrafttakes years to develop.Again, the part-time servicemancan draw from the article not only ajustification for his own existence,but an illustration of the value ofreserve forces.Whilst a conscript trained in 1971might not be a valuable asset in1985. the 20 year old CMr soldier orNaval Reserve seaman of 1971 maywell, if properly trained and encouraged.be a 34 year old Captain orWarrant Officer or Lieutenant orPetty Officer in 1985 Soldiers andsailors can be trained in a hurry, butleaders cannot.One solution Mr. McGaurr offers isthat of the Student-soldier, paid bythe Army to be a full-time studentbut obliged to spend all or part of hisvacations in the Army. An interestingidea, well worth studying, buthas it not already been done? In themid 1960's. (when the Army hadmoney). University Regiments hadan allocation of 73 days hometraining pay per man (and so did theCommandos), and it was notunusual for soldiers who were fulltimestudents to spend up to tenweeks per year in camps of continuoustraining. Mr. McGaurr'ssuggested scheme appears to differonly in detail from the reality ofUniversity Regiments in theirheyday.I commend this paper to all seriousstudents of defence.Pm« Fortv-twoTHE NAVY November-Dec ember-January, 1971/November-December-January, 1971/72THE NAVYP«C« Forty-three