You see my thinking is australia needs to evolve from the status quo relationships we have with our imilitary platform import partners.
Even though the cold war is over i think unfortunately there is still a buy from the traditional cold war ally mentality that still pervades australian politics and procurement.
I think that with ,chinese and indian economic ascendency we will definatley see a rapid closure of military tech capabilty so australia in the not to distant future will have no choice but to deversify her weapon procurement if she seeks to have the best that is available for export.
After all military tech is driven by and large by the amount of money you can invest in a programme and the chinese and indians will certainly be in a future position to outfund all other competing competitors military programmes.
Actually, I do not see where your thinking is going. Or rather, I do not see why your thinking is headed in the direction it is, given the information available.
Broadly speaking, Western bloc equipment tends to use the same design architecture and standards, therefore pieces of Western kit work better together (and are easier to integrate, upgrade and maintain) than a hybrid piece of kit which is a mix of Eastern and Western bloc equipment. Had Australia started off with Eastern bloc equipment, the situation itself might be somewhat different. Then again, it might not, since if one looks at a number of former Warsaw Pact countries which are now members of NATO and the equipment they field.
The above paragraph relates discussion about the equipment ones own force would deploy with and how it interacts with other equipment the force would use. Another area that needs to be considered is how well ones equipment will operate with allies that a force would deploy alongside.
How useful would it be to coalition partners if an Anzac frigate stationed in the Persian Gulf operated Half Plate air search radars like found in service aboard Krivak I/Type 1135 frigates? If the Anzac still was equipped with Link 11 and/or Link 16, then it would still be of some use, being able to send & receive data to allied aircraft and vessels. OTOH if the combat data system and datalinks were of the sort used by Russia, then without some adaption the RAN Anzac would be essentially operating in a network separate from the rest of the coalition and therefore of only limited use.
In terms of the ADF operating with a holdover mentality from the Cold War with respect to equipment purchases, all I can say is, "what?!" Since this is a naval thread, let us examine the recent and upcoming purchases and additions to the RAN.
Given that the LHDs are most likely to enter service before the AWD, I will look at that first. Australia is set to have two Spanish designed and built LHDs enter service starting ~2012, to replace HMAS Tobruk and either Kanimbla or Manoora. Had Australia not chosen the Spanish design, other designs from the US, UK, France, the Netherlands, etc would had been chosen. Notice that all the nations listed are considered Western bloc? China, India and Russia do not have a design available that is able fufill the roles envisioned for the
Canberra-class LHD. In fact, based upon recent news articles Russia is looking to license the Mistral LHD design from France for local production and use by the Russian Navy. This suggests to me that Eastern bloc nations do not have the design experience desired for such a craft and that it was a more efficient use of resources to purchase the type of design desired than to engage in domestic R&D sufficient to develop the required levels of experience.
Another design, this one already in service but recently upgraded, is the
Collins-class diesel-electric submarine. Granted, the design had gone through some early troubles, at present it is one of the most dangerous conventional sub designs. The early troubles with bad welds, problems with flow noise, as well as an insufficient electronics system were overcome with developments done in Australia by Australian companies, or else with assistance from the US. At present the combat data system used aboard the RAN submarines is essentially the same as found aboard USN Virginia SSNs. The RAN went to the US for help with the problems the Collins were suffering for two reasons. The first is that the US has among the most, if not the most technology appropriate for the problems encountered and therefore able to help. The second reason is that because the US and Australia are on very good terms diplomatically, militarily, economically, etc the US would be willing to help Australia. In point of fact, that reason, that the US would be willing to assist Australia if a problem was encountered, is IMO of basically equal value to the idea that some of the best miltech is available from the US in terms of purchases. If Australia had instead licensed production of the
Kilo-class from Russia, would Russia have assisted Australia in efforts at sig management? Would they have been able to? Would China? IMO they might not have been able to assist, and they would likely have not done so if they could without significant consideration/compensation.
Lastly, there is the upcoming
Hobart-class AWD, based off a Spanish "frigate" design and using the US SPY-1D phased array radar and Aegis combat data system. While this is to my knowledge the oldest of the 'modern' area air defence systems, it is also the one which has had the most testing, operational experience and additional development done. The other similar type of radar and combat data systems which could have been selected for the AWD is the APAR, EMPAR, or Sampson. All of which are coincidentally European systems and thus also Western bloc.
The time may well come where Chinese and/or Indian systems reach technological parity with Western bloc equipment, they are certainly making advances from where they had been. However, they still have a great deal more ground to cover, as well as needing to develop doctrines to understand how some of the developments can best be applied. I do not foresee a change here to the level required for parity for close to a generation.
In short, for now, Western bloc equipment tends to provide the best overall performance capability and interoperability, while Eastern bloc equipment tends to be less expensive to acquire for a given capability.
-Cheers
and Anzacs all way to LPAs at the end. will be like that for few more weeks with RAP. With FCP coming up at the start we should expect a very busy harbour Monday mornings as everyone heads out over 2 months.
