The Last Two Liberal Prime Ministers Destroyed Australia’s Defence Capability, by David Archibald.
Bernie Sanders ran as a peace and love candidate in the Democratic primary but he got more funding from the defense lobby than any other member of Congress. Soon after the primary was over he bought a third house. He had received US$398,089 from the defense sector in 2015. Senator Sanders did not criticise the F-35.
But the White House is soon to be occupied by a slew of people who, seemingly, have never received money from the defense sector. So they can see things with clarity. Things such as the ‘extortionate price and lack of ability’ of the F-35, to quote from the Oslo embassy cable of 2006 provided by Wikileaks. Based on President-elect Trump’s utterances, the F-35 program may not have long to live. Which means that Australia will be forced to undo a stupid decision by Tony Abbott.
Much the same will happen to Malcolm Turnbull’s stupid decision to opt for French vaporware submarines instead of Japanese ones off the shelf. For much the same capability, we are supposed to get French submarines, yet to be designed, for $4,000 million a copy instead of Japanese ones for $800 million off the production line. While we are waiting for the French ones to turn up, $5,000 million is to be spent keeping our current Collins class submarines going, which is just short of the cost of replacing them with new Japanese submarines. The deal is just as stupid as it appears. There are no redeeming features.
Turnbull’s folly: The DCNS Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A design is a conventionally-powered derivative of France’s nuclear-powered Suffren-class submarines.
