(MCJex via Flickr)
Budget IS policy.
If Australia is more interested in its entitlement society than Defence, we are spending too much (and getting little in return) for the money.
If Australia wants a Defence that can take on regional threats, we are not getting that for the money spent.
Here are some of the reasons for that state of affairs.
No matter if Australia wants to take the entitlements uber alles approach to Defence spending or expanding capability, then the following things must be recognized.
1. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. This could save $40-50B over the alleged life of the program. Kill it; as it will get killed facing emerging and some existing threats.
2. The Navy: Park the LHDs. Stop the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) project. The AWD is billions, not millions over budget. The AWD is obsolete. It will suffer the fate of the HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse against emerging and some existing threats.
3. Submarines. As only one example, our subs were unavailable for Russia's Operation:SHIRT-FRONT. We don't have a submarine force available to defend our regional waters. If so, there is no need to have them. End the program. If Australia really needs submarines, we do not need 12. We do not need 6.
Again here we are looking at the current Defence group-think that goes by half-measures and then worries about self-before-serivce in the top offices.
The M-1 tank is a joke. Getting rid of it is easy.
The Tiger and MRH-90 need to be done away with. The sooner the better.
They do not provide warfighting capability of any worth.
We do not need helicopters at any price. Especially ones that have a faulty logistics model.
Ordering more C-17s like the last proposal on a whim is not a strategy. The latest one is proposed on Middle-East operations...of dubious worth.
The ADF being in the Middle-East is not a strategy. And not one that we can afford.
The ADF should be looked at as a regional expert for disaster ops, security ops and joint-defense ops.
That is a reasonable expectation.
Big-ticket items?
If Australia wants an effective sumarine force, we need 20-24, small, conventional, no-frills boats that, with a small crew, can also lay mines. Given the rule of thirds, that may not even be enough.
If Australia wants an effective replacement for the classic F-18, then the only way is to have an open bidding process over existing, in-production designs. The model airplane glue sniffing brigade will state than other non-F-35 aircraft will not cut it. There is no proof to that popular meme. Find the F-35 and the Super Hornet on this chart.
Ineffective Australian strategic thinking is rampant.
When you hear those whose pay-check depends on agreeing with the Entrenched Defence Bureaucracy that 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) needs to be spent on Defence, ridicule them for pushing forward a stupid idea at every turn.
South Korea and Singapore spend more than 2 percent of GDP on Defence. They have fairly good top-level Defence management and leadership in place. Certainly better than Australia. Japan spends around 1 percent of GDP on Defence. Note that available population to draw from, is what it is.
1. The Entrenched Defence Bureaucracy has not proven their worth to manage our money. Giving a corrupt and dysfunctional cabal more money to waste gets us no credible warfighting capability in return. They can have more money when they clean up their act. If that ever happens.
2. Defence gets what it gets, as a percentage of the federal budget, after the rest of the entitlement society has had its fief. That is a fact of life.
That is why spending 2 percent of GDP on Defence is a silly idea.
Australia needs to stop its middle of the road approach to Defence. Either it recognizes it is an entitlement society (it is) and puts that as the priority in the federal budget (onward to a New Zealand Defence model?...No half-measures there) or the state of ADF effectiveness will continue to flounder. The first step to a stronger ADF will be Defence management and leadership skills on-par with Singapore as the quality goal.
Finally, for the past several years, Australia has created federal budgets that do not spend within our means. Unchecked trends like that do not end well.
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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
-DM Johnston fired in cabinet reshuffle
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