Hello again Men, A bit more to fill out the political picture.
Both of the major political parties have been complicit in dubious merit acquisitions and strongly supportive of the murky nexus between DMO and the major arms conglomerates. Recall the 'me too' extravagant defence spending promises out to 2018 preceding Election 2007 and see this link trumpeting the 10 year Defence Capability Plan: Combet back flips on critical defence capability plan - Liberal Party of Australia
Arguably, a 10 year DCP done in pencil is wise, but the existing document aiming toward a mythical Force 2030 structure seems welded to the long-range spending promises, as does Air9000 the ADF helo force rationalisation program embraced therein.
Consider also the employment of a former MinDef and a CGS by big arms corporates associated with the Tiger, MRH90, LPD decisions with Nick Minchin also having been a strong driver of these projects in the Howard Government. Seems to me now that both of the major parties are so in thrall to the all powerful arms industry that they are very loathe to even bend long-range hardware acquisition planning. This statement by Bob Baldwin indicates where the priorities lie: ‘Defence industry, independent Defence policy analysts and the Coalition all advised Minister Combet that a four year DCP would not provide industry with enough information to plan for future Defence projects or to develop future workforce structures.’
In my view, Joel Fitzgibbon got it right pulling defence spending projections back to a 4 year budget forward estimates horizon as nobody can judge what the economic and perhaps strategic scenarios will be beyond that time-frame. And defence spending should be all about maintaining the best affordable continual military preparedness, not primarily benefiting defence industry.
It would cost little to just put Iroquois, Kiowa and maybe Squirrel in storage as appropriate and then to figure out whether and how to fund upgrade as the necessities become obvious. I have been hammering this angle but it is just bouncing off both political parties and I will be far from nice if necessary at my meeting with Bob Baldwin next Thursday (he needs my vote).
Both Army Aviation and the Fleet Air Arm will eventually be in dire straits if we cannot get the politicians to act sensibly so we need to apply serious pressure on the Opposition pretty quick. Please get involved, in our national military interest.
Last edited by Bushranger 71; 17th Jul 2010 at 05:29.