Their grandiose announcement yesterday is not about Australia's defence at all, instead it is about giving a bunch of people a job for the next twenty years and so look at us, aren't we the compassionate responsible providers so please tick our re-election boxes. Australia doesn't need jobs, what it needs is the ability to stand alone and defend itself now, right now!
Australia doesn't need a crappy tiny Frigate that will take five years for a committee to finalise design details, then another ten to either buy or build which by that time it will be obsolete and nowhere fit for purpose. In the mean time this gov is going to reduce the Anzacs to six, add that to three air warfare destroyers and what have you got, '9'. Yes that's right, a nation that completely relies on ocean trade and has a very serious maritime responsibility in its region has a 9 ship frontline navy! Oh, add the two floating targets with their eternally curious ski ramp bows (???) and its life span in a confrontation can be then increased to about four hours instead of three. And so with this announcement there is nothing on the horizon for about fifteen to twenty years to make the PLAN go, Oh, wait a minute! It's all about a political party seeming benevolent to do the best it can to be re-elected with pork barrelling in two states with its mantra: "Whatever it Takes!"
Lars, you know a lot about this, that and the other but you don't know a real lot about Oz even though you intentions seem very, very good. Above, as sad and pathetic as it is is the reality of today's ADF - Navy. Even with a change of government which is at least eighteen months away and seems unlikely, and even worse these idiots will be re-elected in minority coalition with the pixie and goblin unicorn milk farmers who live down in the back garden with the toadstools, nothing will ever change until the entire entrenched ADF bureaucracy is fired, kicked out, and the arse-kissing admirals that go with them that have cluttered up the place for the last twenty years doing really nothing. Until an Australian Fisher, Tirpitz or Mahan emerges from somewhere, anywhere, the RAN will always be a 'Fleet in Sunk'.
For its own survival the RAN needs to buy either American or Korean warships, or both, right now from proven yards that can produce them in a war-footing time frame.
The only good news to come out of this scandal is that the Australian public is actually being made aware by some very good select media and, it is causing concern at a national level. Lets hope the PRC can give Oz a couple more years.
Most western navies shrunk dramatically after the Cold War. This program is a step to increase the number of ships of the Australian Navy - from 11 surface combatants to 26!
I also don't think it is the work force, but the lack of continuous working shipyards in Australia, which need continuous orders. This makes it difficult to keep the expertise and infrastructure. Slow building times is a way to keep a shipyard busy. In a country, which hardly built any warships for export, that is very important.
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