A failure at this juncture could also decide the same kind of fate for the future frigate replacement program.
This could put 6000 jobs at risk.
While Defence Minister Johnston may be taking huge flak for stating that he would not trust government-run Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) to build a canoe, it is really the larger entrenched defence bureaucracy that should shoulder the blame.
The lack of solid leadership along with wanting to use all war-fighting production as a political football first and foremost, may doom all home defence industry.
Australia now has a long history of shifting more of its Defence resourcing to foreign interests. Big paydays for certain people that help expedite this. A fifth-column by-any-other name? If the shoe fits.
The entrenched defence bureacracy as a whole, shows little knowledge of what it take to fight a war while maintaining an increased activity of rent-seeking, careerism and corruption.
A bit from the article.
"In particular, it implied that the project was doomed from the start because DMO had insisted that the AWD project would be managed by a multi-headed entity called the AWD Alliance which included ASC, DMO and Raytheon. It was unwieldy, unaccountable and unworkable."
A few points. Defence was warned about the risks of the Air Warfare Destroyer project by independent experts years ago:
The current AWD program is misdirected in its role optimisation, and poorly thought out in its choice of technologies.
A very good case can be made for the AWD program to be delayed by at least a half decade to permit the incorporation of modern low observable hull technology, and the latest X-band active array technology, preferably in a smaller and more affordable hull. If SEA 4000 materialises in its current form, the RAN will be burdened for the next three decades with the last of a generation of technologies, with a design ill adapted to the developing realities of regional maritime warfare.
Defence decided to ignore that advice. Now we have to dig our way out. The hard way. My next point is, if this is the quality of the decision making, we need to fire some people to set an example. I would nominate Mr. King, head of the DMO. After all, it was he that helped give the green-light on Air Warfare Destroyer risks, years ago. Should not someone like this go?
This too...
“It is difficult to know how the alliance can operate as a ‘virtual organisation’, particularly in the event of serious disagreements and even debate on critical issues,” the Winter report said.
Why do we pay defective "managers" that make half-a-million of our dollars per year?
Showing King the door, really is an easy, first start.
The entrenced defence bureacracy is now living in a protected budget where they get continued annual billions of dollars to spend, with no credible sustained war-killing-power to show for it.
Several aircraft, ships and even a few land systems are ripe to get destroyed easily in a real war.
The Australian claims that ...
"The AWDs will provide theatre missile defence to protect large convoys of troops embarking on the two new Landing Helicopter Dock ships..."
This is not true. The Air Wafare Destroyer will be fielded with yesterday's combat systems. Super-sonic, sea-skimming missiles fielded by other nations, are now just starting to show up in our region. This kind of capability is increasing.
According to one former Defence analyst with years of service in the ADF, the Air Warfare Destroyer has about 17 seconds to live when super-sonic, sea-skimming, anti-ship missiles show up on the horizon.
So while we get our popcorn and watch the various dogs in the entrenched defence bureaucracy try and shift blame for the Air Warfare Destroyer debacle, the Nation is unlikely to get true, serious, national defence capability. When can this change? There is no one currently in power that can determine this.
Australians as a whole, may want to become more concerned about the hive of fraud, waste and abuse inside the entrenched defence bureaucracy.
You may even consider calling the entrenched defence bureaucracy a cabal, or even a criminal enterprise.
Leaving this country defenseless while paying tens-of-billions for it, should be considered a crime.
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-New Defence White Paper fails to address Australia's core security needs
-2009 Defence White Paper Fantasy
-Analysing "The ADF Air Combat Capability- On the Record"
-Find out who is responsible for the Air Warfare Destroyer mess
-Analysis of Defence Materiel Organisation Major Projects Management and What Needs to be Fixed
-New DMO Boss warns the staff that business as usual is over
-How dangerous is the Defence Material Organisation to our Defence Industry?
-Australia's Failing Defence Structure and Management Methodology
-More on the dud-jamming gear Defence wants to buy
-ADF cost per flying hour
-I will wipe out bullying vows new Defence chief (Houston 2005)
-Vacancy
-Put Vol 2 Report of DLA Piper Review into the light of day
-Rory and Jim
-Parasitism as an Abstraction for Organizational Dysfunctions
-Hobart-class "Air Warfare Destroyer" to be fielded with obsolete radar guidance technology
-The Decay Of Critical Military Thinking And Writing-With Particular Reference To The RAAF
-Newspaper guy gets it right about sub project.... big time
-The great M-1 tank myth
-*UPDATE* Fear and loathing in Canberra - Audit released on MRH-90 helicopter project
-RAN bullies contractor over Collins sub replacement
-2014-15 ADF budget shocker - Star-ranks
-Air Warfare Destroyer -- Billions, not millions over budget
-Australia's M-1 tanks are... a downgrade compared to what it had
-Weak links put on rubber-stamp Defence panel
-Stop the nonsense (Collins-class submarine replacement)
-Insert Joke Here
-Tyranny of distance--Long, drawn out helicopter projects are unsustainable
-2014-15 ADF budget shocker - cost per flying hour over the last budget year
-Tiger savaged by Navy League of Australia
-Tiger helicopter update
-Overview of corruption in Australia
-Government ignores its own 'rescue' report created to fix Air Warfare Destroyer woes
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