A visiting four-star American general has declared tanks and other combat vehicles are crucial to winning land wars, as debate continues over Australia's recent army overhaul.
The US Army Chief of Staff, General James McConville, has flown into Canberra to meet his Australian counterpart, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, before both men head to Hawaii next week for a regional military conference.
General McConville's visit comes two weeks after the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) outlined a sweeping shake-up of the Australian army, including a reduction in land vehicles and a greater focus on long-range precision missiles.
Under the changes, Labor has slashed the planned number of new, state-of-the-art infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for the army from 450 to 129 and cancelled an expected second regiment of self-propelled Howitzers.
The DSR has instead recommended a greater focus on land-based missile technology for the army as well as speeding up and expanding the acquisition of new landing craft for soldiers to conduct amphibious operations.
Asked about the importance of armoured vehicles including tanks, General McConville insisted the traditional army platforms remained crucial in modern land battles.
"You don't need tanks unless you want to win … that is if you're going to conduct offensive combat operations.
"If you want to seize and hold land, the way to do that is with combined arms".
"Combined arms is tanks, it's armoured personnel carriers, it's artillery, it's attack aviation," General McConville told reporters inside Defence headquarters.
Australia's Army Chief was also asked about the decision to slash IFV numbers and its impact on the morale of soldiers, but insisted his service would still be effective in future close combat operations on land.
"If you look at the capability that we will very soon be able to field, it's world-class and is a significantly greater capability than we've had in the history of the Australian Army," Lieutenant General Stuart said.
"I'm pretty encouraged in terms of where the opportunities are, and we are very focused on executing the mission we've been given," he added.
Both army leaders also discussed the importance of more joint training exercises and greater use of information systems.
General McConville said, like elite sports teams, the US and Australian armies had to regularly practise together.
"We call it training, but it's basically the same thing; you work together, you work out the plays, you get very good at what you do, and as a result you have very strong forces that are stronger together."
