Australia will participate in JLTV
Filed under: Australia, Contract Awards, development program, logistics, production program
The Australian Defence Minister announced that the country would participate in the development phase of the JLTV. As we posted yesterday three development contracts are due to be announced soon by the US Army. JLTV will be used to replace Land Rover vehicles in the Australian inventory. The benefit to them of course is that there 4200 unit buy will be a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands the US military will purchase guaranteeing them a good price. Mr. Fitzgibbon also announced upgrades to a variety of current vehicles and the purchase of more Bushmaster armored vehicles.
See the Heraldsun.com.au for more.
Australian government now attacks F/A-18 buy
Filed under: Australia, Contract Awards, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Restructuring, production program
The Australian Defence Minister, Mr. Fitzgibbon, now has decided that the plan to buy F/A-18 and then JSF for the nation is a bad idea. Just a few days ago, here, he was applauding the F/A-18. He now states that the US aircraft were not necessarily the way to go to buy modern fighter aircraft. The options, though, were limited. Australia could have bought Russian, or the Eurofighter, or SAAB Viggens, I guess? But I don’t know if the cost would have been comparable. He continues to say that the country really wants F-22 aircraft, which is currently not allowable under US law, even though the US DoD have expressed some support for the idea.
Australian politicians snipe at each other over F/A-18 contract
Filed under: Australia, Contract Awards, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, production program
The opposing party to the current Australian government, who were the government until the last election, criticized the Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, for his comments about their management of the Australian defense budget. See the article here on ABC News. He has ordered a review of the F/A-18 contract while stating that he hopes the review supports the contract. One of the main issues is that the termination costs would be substantial.





