Whilst I found Senator Ludlum's questions in the video to mostly be a bit irritating and of course biased towards a Green agenda, he does not need to be a fighter pilot to make it reasonable for him to question the decision to buy the JSF in detail, and I doubt AM Brown thinks so. Ludlum went too far.
It is and should be his duty to hold the public service (and the services) to be accountable.
There have been a number of unfortunate procurement decisions over the years (Australia is not alone in this, and it is to some degree inherent in balancing the conundrum of buying cutting edge vs proven but somewhat down the path towards obsolescence). Lessons appear to have been learned towards not specifying uniquely tailored to Australia variants.
I just wish a senator or someone would have done so when defence ordered the LCM2000, or the SH-2G(A), MRH-90, Tiger ARH, etc.
I, for what it's worth accept the JSF is an appropriate acquisition for the RAAF, if the experts after questioning, maintain that it is.
Last edited by rjtjrt; 3rd Jun 2014 at 05:56.
Reason: More thoughts