Building an industrial base is all about intelligently drawing on the lessons and products of large businesses (which have multinational connections)

- rather than pursuing radical nationalist political views.

Australia has never had the industrial base to design and build complete up-to-date weapon systems.

- Wirraway was a modification from the American Harvard trainer

- Boomarang was oddly similar to the obsolete Brewster Buffalo

- the pride of part Aussie designed Aussie manufacturing was the Collins sub...

All Aus building of warships and jets has been an exercise in assembling mainly foreign designed, mainly foreign made parts - which yield the excellent Mirage jetfighters, ANZAC frigates etc.

This method avoids having an economy built for wartime needs during peacetime - noting the Soviet economy crashed by 1990 because it spent too much on weapons development-construction rather than the consumer sector.

Oh, that's all right then Planta's, come the next big war we'll just tell the enemy that they can't attack us because it' not economical for us to fight them shall we? And of course they'll promptly pack up their toys and go home, apologising for disturbing us.
We haven't been great at building for our self-defense in the past so therefore we shouldn't even try now?
Lets just ignore that fact that warfare has changed enormously over the last 50 years or so, that the tyranny of distance doesn't protect us any more, that we used to have industries that could be converted to war production without too much time or effort, but that we now have no such thing.
Let's also ignore the fact that our economy is imploding, that we NEED something, anything, to pull us out of the doldrums, that we can no longer rely on Britain or America to defend us as we are too easily interdicted due to the aforesaid advances in surveillance and strike capacity of the modern military machine, you know, the one we DON'T have?
I won't suggest potential future enemies, you can do that for yourself, but it doesn't matter, as it stands now we couldn't defend ourselves from ANY of them, and that sorry state of affairs is as indefensible as we are.

G'dayBruce

Doesn't take considered German like planning over decades. Its all so obvious.

What we need to produce are our own:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21#DF-21D_.28CSS-5_Mod-4.29_Anti-ship_ballistic_missile that only China has been able to produce

- stealth bombers and stealth UAVs that only the US has been able to produce

- nuclear subs with thermonuclear weapons would be essential. Only Russia and the US have fully designed such nuclear subs. Even the UK, India and France needed to copy US or Russian designs.

After being broken in with the broken Collins, the Australian Submarine Corporation with DMO would be perfectly capable of the above. This is the current pinnacle of Australian weapons building http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2014/06/04/minister-for-defence-air-warfare-destroyer-added-to-projects-of-concern-list/

To help we have Woomera - and of course the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithgow_Small_Arms_Factory could build us a 1960s machine gun - for the trenches or the beaches.

But being negative is just defeatism or accurate?

Pete

Hey plantagenet, what about those lovely private yachts, oops, I mean patrol boats, oops, I mean illegal boat people boat tugs, we built in Cairns.

Of course the unions damn near sent NQEA who built them broke with their demands, when they had the company over a barrel with delivery dates. I ran a couple of the international cats they built, a 27 & a 29 meter, & apart from a few new chum boat builder mistakes, they were pretty well put together.

They had to have a 3 month shutout to get the cost structure back under control, or go broke, when the contract ended, so may not have been that profitable.

I can imagine the bloody awful mess the sub building cost structures would be, after so long on government contract.

Hi Hasbeen

Its great that you triumphed in the defence of Australia - not against the enemy but of course against the Unions. Only a few months delay is luxury. Not like the AWDs - whats a loose $Billion here and there?

Could those refugee regatta tugboats, with a bit of tweaking be converted into Future Frigates?

Some Unions followed-follow a proud tradition of defence against the capitalists who would defend us. Some Unions went-slow-sabotage during World War II even breaking US aircraft on Qld docks to thwart those nasty American capilatists bent on defending Australia.

Meanwhile Australia has sent some of its best defence engineering brains and designs to Mobile, Alabama producing some even bigger Cats http://www.austal.com/us/products-and-services/defence-products.aspx

Cheers

Pete

Planta's, it strikes me that you're the one being negative, do you have any positive ideas for the defence of Oz?
What do you think we should DO that might increase our safety in the war-to-come?
You might feel comfortable disparaging my suggestions and pointing out all the possible difficulties but what's the point of that, really?
I at least am suggesting things that would HELP our nation, provide employment and infrastructure etc, and ultimately protect us.
So, I ask again, what are YOUR answers to the clear and undeniable dangers we will face in the future?
I don't see outsourcing our defence overseas being practical, so what else do you have in that magic box of conservative miracles?
I'd be interested in an answer from Hasbeen too for that matter.