Australia: Six billion flight of fancy

Published: Wed Mar 7th, 2007
Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au

The Government's Super Hornet purchase is an expensive and unnecessary triumph of politics over strategic knowledge.

IT'S Brendan Nelson's $6 billion bonanza. On Tuesday afternoon as a stiff breeze rippled across the tarmac at Canberra's Fairbairn airbase, the Defence Minister proudly announced the RAAF's latest multi-billion-dollar purchase, 24 F/A-18 F Super Hornets.

"The only reason we are in a position to do this is because we have had solid economic management for over a decade," Nelson said, standing in front of one of the air force's ageing F-111 bombers.

The Super Hornet is another huge political victory for Nelson who has single-handedly won billions of extra taxpayers dollars for defence since he took over the portfolio a year ago. Like last year's purchase of four giant C-17 transport planes, the defence budget will be fully supplemented for the cost of the Super Hornets, meaning it will be paid for from the Government's general budget surplus rather than deducted from the defence budget.

But the $6 billion deal has perplexed defence experts, leaving them pondering Nelson's decision-making style and questioning the strategic wisdom of the Super Hornet buy. "This is pure Nelson, no one else. It was him and him alone," observed one senior government source yesterday. "It's a needless and expensive decision. It makes no operational sense and it makes no sense in terms of value for money," commented another senior defence source.
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