Andu,
please point out where I have insulted anyone - I have made some fairly strong rebuttals of opinion. There is no insult in the use of the term veteran (my father was one!) - I am entitled to defend the senior leadership when I believe those who dont have all the facts (for example people retired who may have previous expertise, but arguably not 'current') make assertions against the current leadership based on their personnal opinion of what the priorities should be.
As in all walks of life its very easy to cheer or jeer from the cheap seats.
I'm definitely not
PR - why waste time trying to guess my motive without attempting to rebut my points?
The query about 'stop-gap' is subtle - the SH capability was acquired as a Bridging Air Combat Capability (BACC), as a hedge against JSF delays. Looking more and more like a good decision.
My point was the original post used the 'stop gap' acquisition of Super Hornet as an example of bad leadership decisions - my point is that it was a good leadership decision! (albeit one actually made by the then Defence Minister!)
Bushranger,
dont get me wrong, I am in now way saying that all acquisition decisions have been good, or even close to good. My point is that (generally) all those stating that' lack of a light transport capability' is purely because of poor and/or stupid senior leadership - are missing the point as it is more about lack of acquisition funding to buy all capabilities required vs the highest ranked priorities.
Government directed ADF Activities since 2003 is a major contributor to the prioritisation decisions.
One of the key issues with capability acquisition is that funding is not all about total value, its all about when the spend can be scheduled - automatically leads to prioritisation conflicts (blame Financial policy here).
If the ADF hadnt been involved in the Middle East continuously since 2003 (C130, P3 and now C17) nor chasing people smugglers across the oceans - I genuinely believe we would have a viable light transport capability now. Caribou was stretched as far as humanly possible, maybe with an element of 'hope' that a replacement would have got across the line by now - unfortunately it didnt.