Quote:
Originally Posted by redforever
I heard a man being interviewed awhile ago, some political science professor from down east whose field of specialty is national defense.
He made this analogy.
Any new capital purchase for national defense, be it a fighter jet, tank, submarine, helicopter....can not be likened to something as simple as buying a new car off a dealer's lot.
He said that no matter what is purchased for national defense, the public should always expect overruns. He said most of these purchases are made in the developmental stage. The F35 falls into that category and he said the development still is not finalized. He also said that because items of purchase of this kind do not fall into mass production like most vehicles that we drive, one should also be prepared to put more money and unexpected money towards R&M than originally expected.
He also is of the opinion that Peter Mackay is one of the best defense ministers he can think of. He said the Department of Defense is one of the hardest portfolios to get a handle on and all too often, the Minister put in charge does not stay in that portfolio long enough to get completely familiarized with it. He said that is not the case with Mackay and Peter knows it inside and out.
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I think this depends on what, and how you buy things, there is a whole industry out there that supplies off the rack weapons systems but they are not as advanced as the kit we want, Brazil or Isreal, France will all quote you a 'no dicker sticker price' for a plane or a tank or the like but it won't have all the cool options we want.