America has invested too much in Afghanistan to leave its allies, including Australia, high and dry by unilaterally withdrawing vital medical and evacuation support services, chief-of-defence force General David Hurley says.
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''The US is not going to close the door and just walk out and leave people high and dry,'' he told The Canberra Times in an exclusive interview.
International Security Assistance Forces are due to hand responsibility for national security over to the Afghan Government by the end of 2014. America has already begun drawing down its troops and Defence Minister Stephen Smith has said Australia may start drawing down its troops in 2013 or earlier.
Defence analysts have said this could be because American support services would have already left.
Independent defence analyst Raspal Khosa said, ''We can only operate in Uruzgan as long as we have the support of the US.''
General Hurley, however, expects the support to remain.
''As we work our way through this, talking to the Afghans [about] which provinces go when, how we step back from mentoring and so forth, we'll be very conscious about that support that will be left in the field. We just won't have a unilateral decision by one country that 'we're going and you're not going to have these'.''
General Hurley welcomed the increase in the use of Australian defence facilities by United States forces announced during President Barack Obama's visit. He said it had not affected the ADF's relationship with China's People's Liberation Army.
''This week we have had people in China exercising with the PLA,'' he said. ''If the PLA was as sensitive as [some] people make out, that exercise, in all probability, would have been stopped.''
The General, who rang the leader of the Pakistani military, General Wynne, on Sunday to express his condolences on the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO strike, said Australia's relations with that country were strong.
''The whole tone of the conversation, and the fact he took the call, reflected that our relationship with the Pakistani military is very good.''
Defence had escaped relatively unscathed from Treasurer Wayne Swan's mid-year budget review this week, he said.
''We're affected by the one-off increase in the efficiency dividend but the other measures don't have an impact on us,'' he said. ''I haven't seen the sum [Defence has to cut] yet, we'll just go through the normal processes.''
General Hurley, who has been visiting Defence bases in Australia and overseas, said despite a string of scandals and controversies, ADF morale was high.
''Why do I say that? A; the feedback I get from talking to people. B; this is an organisation that is very focused on performing operations and C; it is an organisation that knows it has some big challenges. There is a real determination in the organisation to meet these challenges,'' he said.
''You don't get that sort of desire to get the job well done in an organisation that is down on its cups.''
The introduction of women into frontline combat positions has not been a hot issue during the General's field visits.
''It's only been raised once with me,'' he said. ''That was in Tarin Kowt. I was talking to a group of young [female] officers. One was quite opposed, one was supportive and one was waiting to see.''
Arguments that the decision would lead to women coming home in body bags just don't hold water.
''Women could have been coming back to Australia in body bags for the last 20 years,'' he said.
''We have women who commanded our ships in the Gulf, we have women who fly our aeroplanes, we have women who fly our helicopters. They are just as exposed to being casualties as males are.''
General Hurley is hopeful Defence will be able to issue a coordinated response to the six different culture reviews commissioned in the wake of the ADFA Skype scandal before Christmas. ''We didn't want to turn this into six reviews for culture, each of them with 15 recommendations and say 'that's 90 recommendations, go away and do the tick and flick for three or four years and then say we've implemented the recommendations','' he said.
The rotation of large numbers of US Marines through Australian training bases in the Northern Territory afforded an opportunity to develop Australia's interoperability capability with the US and to get the best out of the landing helicopter docks that are currently under construction.
''It is an increased opportunity for us to operate with them [the Americans] at a higher level in more complex environments,'' he said.
''I don't think we will be Marines, we're not structured that way. [But] many of the operational techniques they use and the way they go about their training and generating that capability will be of genuine use to us.''
One piece of good news is RFA Largs Bay, the amphibious ship snapped up from the British at the bargain price of $100 million earlier this year, will be ready to render humanitarian assistance before the looming cyclone season.
Ship watch websites say the vessel should arrive in Western Australia next Friday. She will be commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Choules shortly after.