Myth.
Maybe not in French restaurants.
I prefer my frogs legs fried.
I prefer them au naturelle. In their own habitat.
I hear French women prefer them that way, too.
I’ve hated FC and for realz long before social media came along. Also been vocal about it too.
HIMARS was one of the most impactful systems provided to Ukraine. A couple of dozen trucks took out millions of rounds of artillery ammunition, forward command posts, logistics hubs, troop concentrations and even helicopter bases. It led to the collapse of the early Russian advance and changed the course of the war.
Of the 40 odd HIMARS vehicles sent to Ukraine, only one has been destroyed. These are very mobile and difficult to counter, able to pop up anywhere and take out an important target quickly, then disappear.
They can fire a huge range of missiles, from a barrage of 75km guided rockets, up to a pair of 500km precision strike missiles. More options will likely be added over time, giving them an anti-shipping role as well as ground attack.
These are good kit and quite cost effective. We scaled back the number of tube artillery we purchased in order to buy the increased range these bring. If 75km range isn’t worth having, we may as well take away the guns from the army as they can only shoot a few hundred meters.
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The M777 towed guns we have turned out to be hugely survivable in a modern drone battlefield. The Ukrainians dig them into tree lines and forests, covering them with drone cages and camouflage. Crews shelter in a separate bunker and ammo is stored away from both.
The mobile artillery shoot and scoot approach has become more risky as recon drones become plentiful. Mobile artillery now needs to run to cover and hide in a drone cage, rather than just drive a km down the road.
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Yet we only have one month’s fuel supply, which would turn into weeks worth in a panic.
We won’t be towing anything for very long.
No oil reserve, limited refinery capacity - raise the flag.
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In the death throes of the Morrison government, we committed to our reserves being in America.
“ As part of this package, Australia also took advantage of historically low oil prices and stored around 1.7 million barrels of oil in the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”
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We also bought 1 billion tonnes of caviar because it was near used by clearance and the LNP thought there’d be some re-election parties. Seriously fukk that wretched government so much. “Please take our GDP for the next century and also could you store our fuel reserves cos we like the same tv shows and drink beer while watching sports”
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Yep we should have oil reserves in each state.
And likely should have downward lithium industry supply chain in batteries and an electric car production facility.
If we reduce reliance on diesel /oil it makes us more secure as nation.
As all they need to do is stop oil tankers coming in and we will grind to a halt.
Isn’t ‘all’ doing a lot of work there?
Thanks for the well thought out response.
I was kinda being silly…but why can’t we have a HIMARS that goes 1-2,000 kilometers.
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But 500k from Edinburgh SA is not going to hit any invaders. At least not until they have taken over the rest of the country.
Why aren’t these resources placed closer to where they may conceivably be used?
Any invasion will come from the north, ie more than 500 km from SA.
Kangaroo Island is not going to invade us any time soon.
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They are based at Edinburgh because Cultana and Woomera are the best training facilities in the country and are closest to Edinburgh. There will be extensive training undertaken at both facilities. It’s the same reason the tanks were based at Edinburgh until the government in its wisdom decided to move them back to QLD which will end up being a costly mistake.
Edinburgh is also like the nerve centre and much of the computers and tech is housed there and hence why the drones will also be remotely operated out of there too
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Remotely controlling drones is sensible but you have tanks and artillery to use in the field.
There is no logic in having tanks and artillery located at Edinburgh…if the sh*t ever hit the fan, it would be a logistical nightmare to move them where they are needed.
We have limited airlift capacity…8 Globemasters (which can carry one tank) and 12 Hercules which can’t carry any.
So how would this equipment be deployed if the need ever arose?
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The ADF also believe that strategically in an attack from the North you don’t want to have all your assets within arms reach immediately and that by basing the HIMARS etc at Edinburgh they are out of harms way in the event of attack and they can then rapidly deploy them when the need arises.
The tanks for instance now are still going to use Cultana for training so about 4 times per year they will truck the tanks down from QLD and then back up again after training
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Are there emus on Kangaroo Island?
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