Tuesday, October 30, 2007

4 Corners on Australia’s air force procurement

This post seems to have been eaten by the Spaminator at Lavvie Prodders
( Wordpress's text box also does funny things to html).
The problem of Russian weapons systems of being incompatible is being solved. The Sukhoi Su-30
"Su-30MKA Highly specialised version for Algeria is similar to the MKI, but will principally be equipped with French and Russian avionics. It will feature head-up and multifunction displays from the Thales Group and Sagem of France." Other defence forces are also changing the Su-30's avionics.
The Russians also wouldn't be the only possible source of spare parts for the Su-30.
There are a number of issues that the excellent Four Corners brought up and for some of the terms in that program see Fighter Aircraft
1. These fighters have to be considered as an overall part of our defence forces and not just as toys for the boys.( The JSF F-35 Lightning II is likely to be the last " meat in the seat" as far as the U.S. is concerned).
The key example : if in the scenario of the attack on the military communications headquarters on the outskirts of Jakarta we had used the Super Hornets against the Indonesians Su-30s then all of the Super Hornets would have been destroyed. This may be an acceptable cost for the goal achieved if we have sufficient other defence assets. However we have to go through most probable scenario analyses and I find a direct attack on the Indonesians improbable. We might plan however for an outlying territorial dispute with the Indonesians.
2. The decision to buy the JSF appears to have been made very carelessly.
3. The JSF is also a comparatively slow aircraft against the Su-30. The scenario of an interaction between the JSF and Su-30s wasn't explored on the Four Corners program.
4, The decision to buy the interim Super Hornet was hopelessly flawed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good words.