The apocalyptic bushfires of last summer shook the nation with their monstrous scale, ferocious speed and destructive force.
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What is less known about the crisis that gripped Australia for several months is it involved the largest ever mobilisation of the Defence Force in response to a domestic disaster.
The Black Summer started a new era in which the military was expected to assist civil authorities responding to national crises. Its task continued after the bushfires, as the Australian Defence Force supported government efforts to contain COVID-19.
Expectations on the military grew further this year as the federal government's new defence strategy outlined a deteriorating regional strategic environment, and a world Prime Minister Scott Morrison described as "poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly".
As the Defence Force's workload expands, the nation's military experts have asked whether the ADF is being spread too thin.
Some warn the potential consequences of overburdening the nation's military are not worth the gamble.
Defence strategist Hugh White says the Defence Force is being pulled both ways as its workload grows.
"The fact is maintaining high level, modern capabilities is a very demanding full-time task," he says.
"The more time that our defence personnel spend helping with the pandemic or fighting bushfires or responding to floods, the more time they spend doing those kinds of things, the less time they have to develop the very complex and sophisticated skills required for high level conflict."
One risk that we face is the risk that by distracting the ADF with non-military tasks we'll find ourselves losing the next war.
- Defence strategist Hugh White
Professor White, emeritus professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, says the government has acknowledged the nation faces more severe strategic circumstances in the years ahead. The chances Australia will be involved in a major war have grown higher.
"We therefore must take seriously the question as to whether or not the ADF is adequately prepared to play its part," he says.
"One risk that we face is the risk that by distracting the ADF with non-military tasks we'll find ourselves losing the next war."
Australian National University international security expert John Blaxland says there are many state and federal government bodies - such as the State Emergency Service and fire services including the Rural Fire Service - whose primary tasks include responding to natural disasters.
"These are instrumentalities that are not being talked about as getting the additional resources to make this happen," he says.
"My concern is that in part this is because the ADF is a lever that the federal government can exercise and it is the one that is not politically all that contested."
There are public relations benefits for the military in assisting bushfire responses.
"But we need to look beyond the PR, and think about a sustainable task for the nation to respond to the challenges we face," Professor Blaxland says.
"The challenges we face are an overlap of not only looming environmental catastrophe, but a spectrum of governance challenges in our neighbourhood and, of course, overlapping that is the question of great power contestation.
"The heady brew of those three domains means that the ADF actually needs to be kept aside for its principle function, not to understudy the SES and the RFS."
Despite the warnings, the government has made clear it expects the Defence Force to keep responding to domestic crises. The Defence Strategic Update says the military will support civil authorities during pandemics, bushfires, floods and cyclones.
If summers ahead are anything like the last, then significant demands await the ADF.
A Defence Department spokesperson says it maintains a significant standing and surge capacity to support state and territory governments for emergency responses.
"The ADF has continually demonstrated over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2019-20 bushfires before it, its ability to respond rapidly to domestic requests including roles not usually performed by ADF personnel," the spokesperson says.
"Defence is ready and well-placed to meet future community support tasks when required."
The government is spending on equipment, facilities, training, logistics and planning to grow Defence's capacity to support states and territories responding to domestic emergencies and crises, the spokesperson says.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Marcus Hellyer says the ADF would come under pressure in contributing to emergency responses with equipment that can be used in both military and civil disaster relief roles, such as transport aircraft.
Throughout the bushfires last summer, the MRH-90 Taipan was used extensively, and at great expense compared to the civilian helicopters leased by the Rural Fire Service.
"The other issue is military aircraft aren't really designed to fly all day, every day," Dr Hellyer says.
"You burn them up pretty quickly doing the disaster relief kinds of activities, and so those assets aren't really available for their core war fighting role."
The Defence Department should consider purchasing civilian helicopters specifically for the military's emerging role assisting with responses to natural disasters, he says.
"That will require a mindset shift and a policy shift and we are hearing that there is some pretty serious thinking going on inside Defence in that kind of space."