"New" RAN amphib ship down for 6 months of repair

On its' way to an exercise in June, the RANs new amphibious support ship, HMAS Choules, was stricken by an engineering failure. It will be out of action until the "end of December" reports today's The Australian.

The Choules was bought from the U.K. who are having a going-out-of-business sale with their military for only $100M. The repair is billed as being cheap at $1M. What makes it interesting is the time eliment, amount of down-time for the repair and the business-as-usual lack-of-due-dilligence by the Defence-DMO-RAN cabal.

What failed on the ship was an electrical transformer, however:

The 16,000-tonne vessel was bought by the Gillard government last year to fill the embarrassing capability gap caused by major problems with the Navy's three landing ships, Tobruk, Kanimbla and Manoora.

It was said at the time to be in excellent condition.

But a Royal Navy report from early last year indicated engineers had noted that when it was sailed at full speed its propulsion motors and transformers tended to overheat.

"The running of equipment at near maximum temperatures on a regular basis will likely cause early failure of the motors and transformers," the report said. That report was written a month before Defence Minister Stephen Smith and the Minister for Defence Materiel, Jason Clare, announced Australia's successful bid for the ship.

Currently the frigates are one of the few RAN communities that work. While "successful" at sinking a defenceless target in a recent exercise, a RAN sub that did the job had to go to port due to leaks. The sub-fleet is an expensive disaster. Just as bad, the current leadership can only field a small amount of patrol craft due to poor maintenance and crewing issues. The regional naval assets the RAN have are used as an on-call taxi service for illegal boat people.

At some point and time the public should be asking why we have such an ineffective and expensive naval service.

H/T- RS

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-Analysis of Defence Materiel Organisation Major Projects Management and What Needs to be Fixed

-Australia's Failing Defence Structure and Management Methodology

DOD offers empty promises to fix tac-air recap

Empty promises. Depending on a failed program to come in for the big win.

DoD now plans to fully ramp up production of Marine Corps and Navy versions at a pace of 50 jets per year in 2018, according to the document. Last year’s report projected 50-aircraft-per-year buys beginning in 2017.

Air Force production is expected to hit 60 jets in 2018 and peak at 80 jets in 2021. Last year’s report projected 80-aircraft-per-year buys beginning in 2017.

It won't happen. Because previous promises have also been way off.

The faith based followers are an example of planning to fail. As seen here:

“Since we put all of our eggs in the F-35 basket … we’d better take care of the basket.”

My current bet is 300 F-35s before it is all wrapped up. That is a best-case scenario. And not many of those will be combat capable.