Page 34 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

34 DEFENCE BUSINESS HEAD LAND CAPABILITY
APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DSR will be a very, very important one of those factors – but it’s just another contributing factor to how Army looks at them and best implements them to make ourselves a contemporary force.
ADM: Looking at Ukraine from an Army capability point of view, has there been anything that has surprised you, in terms of how that conflict has played out?
MAJGEN KING: People talk about the
rate of use of ammunition being sur-
prising. I think we’ve known since the
First World War that in a peer-on-peer
conflict of this size and nature, you con-
sume enormous amounts of resources
– whether that’s people, fuel, or ammunition. I think it’s validated something we’ve always known, and I speak from my role as someone who runs the capability side of Army. It’s validated that close combat is always going to occur. No matter how many robots and autonomous systems we rely
the importance of Land 400 Phase 3 will resonate when the DSR is released. I’ve certainly enjoyed the experience and I’m looking forward to moving across to CASG now and helping the ADF deliver the next generation of Army and Navy rotary wing, tactical UAS and the fixed wing training system.
ADM: What are you looking forward to in that role? MAJGEN KING: As a junior lieutenant I started on Black Hawk as an engineer and I was lucky enough to be there when we stood up the special operations aviation capabil- ity in Army in 2005, so there’s a little bit of my heart that is pleased to go back and be working on Black Hawk and, indeed, reintroducing it into service, I won’t lie.
The flipside is that I spent a lot of time in my career work- ing with industry and Army to make Tiger and MRH 90 work, and so I’m very saddened that we as a community – Australian Industry and Defence – have not been able to get those platforms to the point we wanted, because it wasn’t without all of us trying enormously hard.
ADM: What challenges await your successor as HLC? MAJGEN KING: I think the DSR is the elephant in the room. The Chief has made it very clear we need to be ready to embrace and adopt its direction. There are going to be things that will challenge the historical way we’ve operat- ed, and that’s okay; we’ve been there and done this before. In the light of the current preparedness requirements and threat that exists, it’s important we do it in an agile way and get after it as quickly as we can, because we can’t afford to take our time in admiring the direction or the problems that come with it.
MAJGEN Vagg, the incoming Head Land Capability, is well placed to understand the intent of the DSR. Army is going to be well-served in having him in there, but certainly the DSR implementation is going to be first and foremost in our minds. ■
ABOVE: The Sikorsky UH-60M has been selected to replace the unloved MRH 90 Taipan helicopters
“WE’RE THE ONLY ARM OF THE DEFENCE FORCE/THE JOINT FORCE THAT CAN CONDUCT CLOSE COMBAT ON LAND”
on, humans are out there dig- ging trenches today sadly, and I suspect they’ll continue to do so in modern conflicts. So, the quality of our people, the qual- ity of our training have been validated by the Ukraine expe- rience, and these are lessons we’ve always known. Perhaps for convenience we’ve put them
to the side, and it’s re-impressed upon us those things we were taught as young officers around logistics being impor- tant as they were 100 years ago.
ADM: What is in store for you next?
MAJGEN KING: I’m handing over to Major General Rich- ard Vagg and he will take over as Head of Land Capability. I’m moving across into CASG to be the Head of Joint Avia- tion Systems Division – which supports Army and Navy’s helicopters, tactical UAS and the fixed wing pilot training system at East Sale.
ADM: How will you look back on your time as HLC? MAJGEN KING: I’m humbled by the Chief giving me the opportunity to perform the role. In Army, first as a Director General and then as HLC for the last couple of years I’m very proud we were able to convince people of the impor- tance of tank and combat engineer vehicles; the progress we’ve had on combat reconnaissance vehicles; the justifica- tion around Black Hawk and Apache as part of that system and, in addition, the path to acquiring HIMARS and self- propelled guns. The self-propelled guns and HIMARS are new capabilities that are going to be really important to how we operate into the future.
I’m disappointed I wasn’t able to land the objective evi- dence and logic to convince people that we needed Land 400 Phase 3. I sincerely hope the Chief’s messaging and
NIGEL PITTAWAY