Reader's comments

Comment of the day... or maybe the week, or on this topic, of all time:

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Johnno

The question is defensible against whom? If you are talking about budding great powers we are in trouble without the direct involvement of the 'the super power'. Below that level of conflict we should be aiming to look after ourselves.
What annoys me off is that just about every equipment decision of recent time is predicated on joint operations with the said super power. We have bought a lot of equipment over the last 20 years but in just about every case our ability to support the new equipment independently is significantly to dramatically less than the equipment that was replaced.
Two examples (and there are a lot more)

C-17, great aircraft but its engines are based on the engine on the 757. There isn't a single 757 on the Australian register. Just about everything on that aircraft is Fedexed back into the USAF maintenance system and paid for in US dollars.
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M777 155MM. We moved from a mix of 105 and 155 to 155 exclusively. Reason, guided 155MM rounds, Consequence, for the fist time since WW1 are are now totally dependent on imported rounds paid for in foreign currency.

Similar examples can be found with the Super Hornet, the Eurocopter offerings, the Seahawk Romeo, the M1 tank, even the Remote weapons system on the ASLAV which goes back to Norway for DLM.

Russell Offices is constantly buying as many shiny toys as it can and constantly skimping on in country support .