The
US Deputy Defence Secretary has written
Brendan Nelson to say that the F22 will not be offered as an export to Australia. The F22 is one of two fifth generation platforms, the JSF is the other, and more than a few in politics and policy have argued for the F22 instead of the JSF to be the RAAF's next platform.
Yesterday the ASPI released a policy document authored by Andrew Davies that was titled:
The generation gap: Australia and the Super Hornet by Andrew Davies
. In it Davies argues that the Super Hornet is a poor option, and the four billion spent on it might be better spent on keeping the F111 in service until the fifth generation fighter becomes available or operational.
Davies also argues that the F22 might become a more cost competitive answer to Australia's projection issues, as we would not be buying an early version, and know the cost overruns - something that remains uncertain with the JSF. However the letter from the US Deputy of Defence puts a kabosh on that. He writes:
We also need to understand that, no matter what we do, we lose significant capability when the F-111 retires. No other aircraft (including the Super Hornet, Raptor and JSF) has its range and load carrying capability. Effectively each F-111 provides better than twice the combat effect of smaller aircraft like the JSF or the Super Hornet. For that reason, it might well be worth looking at how many years extra service we could get from them for part of the four billion dollars that the Super Hornets would cost. That might be a more cost-effective way of avoiding a capability gap.
This is Australia's real problem. For the first time in the RAAF's history a new platform will decrease our capability, not improve it.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
