Good spin Fitzgibbon
DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has accused the former Howard Government of perpetrating a cruel hoax on veteran organisations which were offered free Leopard tanks, now likely to cost thousands of dollars.
No, the Howard government offered to ‘gift’ Leopard tanks – it’s you who have decided to charge for them.
“De-commissioned Leopard tanks will soon be available for gifting to veteran and historical organisations across Australia as part of the Howard Government’s acquisition of the new Abrams tanks,” then-defence minister Brendan Nelson said in a statement in September last year.Fitzgibbon spins faster;
“However, it must be done in a fiscally responsible fashion and the organisations involved must be fully aware of the facts that the now opposition deliberately failed to inform them of,” he said.The organizations were already fully aware of the facts – It is you who have changed them. Why don’t you just say that organizations that would want a tank outside their buildings are not the type of people you would choose to associate with and if they want the tanks they will bloody pay for them. It’s got nothing to do with the Howard government. If you change a promise made by Howard government, as is your right, then just say so.
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Of course, there has been nary a voice raised about the actual removing these vehicles from the Army’s roster.
It seems to be part of the bizarre “only one tracked chassis” “philosophy” I have heard about?
Yes, the good old Leopards are not up there with the M-1 as far as mobility or firepower, BUT…….
Is there a bridging variant of the Abrams? Not to my knowledge.
How many Engineer / recovery variant Abrams will there be? See previous.
In the unlikely event that the decision makers are in any way familiar with anything further afield than their desks, it is NORMAL in REAL armies to use expensive older equipment in second line roles as per above, and/or allocate it to Reserve units.
The Israelis raised that doctrine to an art form over the decades; viz Centurions and T-55s with radical power train mods and armament/armour upgrades.
The US uses superseded first line equipment in second line roles on a massive scale.
Is this just another example of decision making by box-ticking bureaucrats at the ultimate expense of troops in the field?