Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates

Status
Not open for further replies.

hairyman

Active Member
Here is an idea for if ever we build a class of two ships and cant think of names for them. HMAS James (or Captain) Cook and Able Tasman.
 

rand0m

Member
No Cookies | Herald Sun

Coalition to restore Defence spending to two per cent of GDP
by: Gemma Jones and Jessica Marszalek
From: News Limited Network September 02, 2013 10:22AM



inShare
submit to reddit
Increase Text Size
Decrease Text Size
Print
Email
Australian Opposition Leader
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott chats with members of the Australian Defence Force at Holsworthy Army Base today. Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
DEFENCE spending would be restored to two per cent of GDP and further cuts ruled out, under a Coalition government, Tont Abbott announced today.
The Coalition, which would also produce a new defence white paper, has attacked recent defence spending cuts which have eroded the budget to its lowest level as a per centage of GDP in almost 80 years.

Mr Abbott also defended his reference to the Syrian regime, which he today called an "abomination" and its civil war opponents, which he said were linked to al Qaeda, as "baddies versus baddies" saying speaking in "colloquialisms" to make a point was reasonable.

"People such as David Cameron and Bill Clinton have referred to good guys and not so good guys," he said.

He accused the government of hyperventilation and of being shrill for suggesting he would embarrass Australia, if he was elected Prime Minister on Saturday.

At Holsworthy Army base, Mr Abbott sat in the cockpit of a Black Hawk helicopter and spoke with troops from the 6th aviation regiment.

Tony Abbott stands with members of Australian Defence Force at Holsworthy Army Base. Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
Tony Abbott stands with members of Australian Defence Force at Holsworthy Army Base. Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
"As someone who has never worn our country's uniform I have enormous respect, admiration and often awe for those of you who have worn our country's uniform," he said.

One soldier took the opportunity to confront Mr Abbott on foreign investment during his tour of the base, asking him whether he would be able to "sit comfortably" at night as an old man if he sold land Australians had "made the ultimate sacrifice to defend".

Mr Abbott told him a free country needed free markets.

"In some circumstances it might be alright to sell land, in some circumstances it might not be alright to sell land," he said.

It was about judging the circumstances, he said.

The soldier, who would not give his name to media, asked whether it wouldn't be a better policy to lease land rather than sell it.

Mr Abbott said that could be possible.

He declined to make any promise of new machinery for the Defence Force, saying such commitments were impossible from Opposition.

Tony Abbott inspects military hardware at Holsworthy Army Base. Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
Tony Abbott inspects military hardware at Holsworthy Army Base. Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
He said Labor could still win the election or form government again in a hung parliament.

Mr Abbott has dropped a firm commitment to visit Jakarta in his first week if he were to become PM.

He said he couldn't just "show up" and would arrange any visit with Indonesia.

A commitment to buy drones for surveillance off Christmas Island for asylum boats has also been watered down.

In April, the Coalition announced it would spend $1.5 billion to buy and operate seven unmanned aircraft to patrol the Australian coastline for asylum seeker boats.

The drone program was to be fully operational by 2017-18, and the aircraft would feed information back to the navy and Customs.

But Mr Abbott today said a Coalition government would "consider closely the need" for unmanned aerial aircraft.

Mr Abbott said the "technical reality" was that operational decisions could not be made from opposition.

"We don't want to make commitments in opposition which we may well find we have to revise in government because when advised by the experts they tell us it would be better to go down this path rather than that path," he said.



Read more: Coalition to restore Defence spending to two per cent of GDP | News.com.au
What does this change? 4th AWD?
 

icelord

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
What does this change? 4th AWD?

The policy pledges no new hardware, focusing instead on “righting the ship”, according to Coalition defence spokesman David Johnston.


Nope, not for the moment in any case, its more about increasing spending which means more training excercises, Port visits for the Navy and hopefully ships out of mothball and Bushmasters brought out of the shed.
 

Trackmaster

Member

The policy pledges no new hardware, focusing instead on “righting the ship”, according to Coalition defence spokesman David Johnston.


Nope, not for the moment in any case, its more about increasing spending which means more training excercises, Port visits for the Navy and hopefully ships out of mothball and Bushmasters brought out of the shed.
There's a lot of them not even in the shed out near Brisbane airport. What chance the Hawkei being given the go-ahead?
 

weegee

Active Member
Supply ship replasment

So with Labor promising to avoid the valley of death with the supply ship being brought forward and with the Coalition saying they are going to spend more money odds are they will do the same thing. What ships does everyone think are in the running for the contract to be built?
1)SPS Cantabria has she impressed enough to get the nod? how well things seem to be going with the LHD's and the AWD you would imagine another 2 ships from the same designer would would run along the same route?

2)ASC's Australian AEGIR 18A offer from S Korea? no doubt these would come very quickly and at reasonable price too?

Are there any other options that will be put up? or is it basically down to these options and which would suit us better?
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
don't count on seeing more assets being procured 1st term under the Libs

they have a different focus
 

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
don't count on seeing more assets being procured 1st term under the Libs

they have a different focus
Cut, slag, burn and blame everything on Labor, just like 1996 all over again. Projects will be reviewed, delayed and cancelled, public servants will be sacked and defence industry members will be slandered and driven into the ground while uniformed members will be transferred, stuffed around and worked until they quit. All will be blamed on Labor and any slight improvements in their second term will be held up as evidence of their genius and commitment to defence.

Doubt me, just look at the UK
 

John Newman

The Bunker Group
Cut, slag, burn and blame everything on Labor, just like 1996 all over again. Projects will be reviewed, delayed and cancelled, public servants will be sacked and defence industry members will be slandered and driven into the ground while uniformed members will be transferred, stuffed around and worked until they quit. All will be blamed on Labor and any slight improvements in their second term will be held up as evidence of their genius and commitment to defence.

Doubt me, just look at the UK
Sorry what was that? Politicians playing Politics?

I don't disagree with what you are saying, but both sides aren't immune when it comes to the blame game, playing politics or changing direction or focus.

If I remember correctly six years ago, the current Labor government jumped up and down and made a lot of noise about the Libs retiring the F-111 early and replacing them with Super Hornets.

At the end of the day and after a review the new Government finally agreed with the go ahead, but also made the political point that if it didn't proceed the Government would be faced with cancellation fees and also that the wind down of the F-111 was too far down the track to stop.

And on a side note about change in direction, if I remember correctly, it was the then new Labor Government in early 1983, which made the decision to cancel the replacement of HMAS Melbourne and the retirement of the fixed wing aircraft of the fleet air arm, was this going to happen under the previous Government? Who knows...

Not defending either side, but as they say 'when you elect a politician, you get a politician!'.

Many years ago a friend said to me he had a solution to the short term 3 year view of politicians and politics in our system.

He said, 'what we need is to install a benevolent dictator for a 10 year period, make sure that in the 10 year period things get done, and just before the dictator's 10 years are up, take him out the back and shoot him (saves on a parliamentary pension!), put another one in, and repeat as necessary till things get done properly!'

Anyway, I'm not holding my breath either way if things will get better or worse, time will tell.
 

old faithful

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Well, labor have left them selves open to blame...and there are an awful lot of public servents in dod when we only have around 70,000 regulars and about 30,000 reserves....did you serve under labor Hawke Keating era? OMG!
 

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Don't get me wrong, Labor do not deserve to be re-elected its just that I am not looking forward to all the BS associated with a change of government. To be honest my family will probably be better off as we seem to better fit Tony Abbotts view of worthwhile, its just that I fear the sort of idiocy you often see when you get an arrogant new government elected with a large majority.
 

old faithful

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
I'm hearing you!

Due to the last incompetant govt, changes will need blah blah blah

I'm instructing on that course I told you about Volk, one of my students is exQM of a certain unit up here who,s vehicles you admired at the show. He has 26 years army under his belt. His CO had a budget this year of $170K. That's funny isn't it!
 

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
I'm hearing you!

Due to the last incompetant govt, changes will need blah blah blah

I'm instructing on that course I told you about Volk, one of my students is exQM of a certain unit up here who,s vehicles you admired at the show. He has 26 years army under his belt. His CO had a budget this year of $170K. That's funny isn't it!
You probably know or can guess the game I'm in and the lack of funding compared to other projects I've worked on is astounding, I just don't get the priorities of the bods in Canberra. The irony though is the mess we have is due to a contract signed by the previous mob therefore nothing is likely to change or be fixed as it will acknowledge a failure of theirs not Labor. Why on earth Labor didn't jump on the band wagon and lay the blame on their predecessors is beyond me, there is a lot to be blamed for.
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
Well, labor have left them selves open to blame...and there are an awful lot of public servents in dod when we only have around 70,000 regulars and about 30,000 reserves....did you serve under labor Hawke Keating era? OMG!
The absolute irony being that the reason why there are so many public servants is that both sides of govt:

deskilled trades in the services so that staff went to industry
as a legacy of above industry charges 4-5 times what we could do with less problems and makes it worse by having contracts which limit what they can do anyway (I worked on a project for Govt where it got rejected time and time again when I was a SOGB (EL2 equiv). When I went contracting we responded to that project, basically submitted the same projects specs as what I wrote in Govt, charged Govt 5 times the price (and then some) - and Govt approved it because it came from the private sector - and therefore we were the "experts" go figure
set procurement guidelines of governance which extended project decision times
set governance procedures in place which couldn't review in the same ratio as outstanding projects - so projects have to slip through no fault of the project as they can;t put a fire hose worth of water into a garden hose etc....
 

the road runner

Active Member
RAN media have uploaded a video of HMAS Sirius replenishing HMAS Warramunga and Sydney at sea on exercise Blue Raptor.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akXsMkY6uNI"]Exercise BLUE RAPTOR - Replenishment at Sea - YouTube[/nomedia]

A couple of hours to fill a ship/frigate.
Pretty impressive to see how they actually replenish our ships at sea

I assume replenishing our new LHD would take twice as long as that to fill?
 

Marc 1

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
Well, labor have left them selves open to blame...and there are an awful lot of public servents in dod when we only have around 70,000 regulars and about 30,000 reserves....did you serve under labor Hawke Keating era? OMG!
Yes. Pre operational deployment exercise (Rifle Company Butterworth was still considered an operational deployment back then) 5 blank rounds per man, no blank link, no whiz bangs, no rat packs (hot box meals delivered by vehicle in the J at Canungra).

Ohhh, what else... Ah - never fired a 66 (subcal or HEAT), threw only 2 x live grenades in 6 years, designed basic training programs for the ARES that had them signed off as competent ECN 109 Rifleman when they hadn't been allowed enough rounds to even do the basic serial shoot on their SLR's. Very glad I was at the cutting edge of the ADF in one of our 6 Regular battalions with IIRC a posted strength of around 290 troops)

Yes I remember the late 80's early 90's.... Disgraceful. And they wondered why we had retention problems...
 

AegisFC

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
RAN media have uploaded a video of HMAS Sirius replenishing HMAS Warramunga and Sydney at sea on exercise Blue Raptor.

Exercise BLUE RAPTOR - Replenishment at Sea - YouTube

A couple of hours to fill a ship/frigate.
Pretty impressive to see how they actually replenish our ships at sea

I assume replenishing our new LHD would take twice as long as that to fill?
With only one fuel line probably more than twice as long. Both Burkes I was on routinely used both forward and aft lines when UNREPING and it is pretty much standard operating procedure for the big decks unless the tanker has some sort of limitation.
 

SASWanabe

Member
can anyone identify the (what i Assume is an) amphibious warfare ship that was berthed near cairnscross drydock in the Brisbane river this morning 7/09/13?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top