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Raytheon's View Of Adelaide
Raytheon's View Of Adelaide
Bear in mind when you read this means there are Raytheon people wandering around Antartica, and that the reasons that Raytheon have identified Adelaide as a hub are probably similar to those I gave in Halliburton's Adelaide.
Reprinted from Raytheon's website, this speech explains South Australia's new military role in the world better than I can:
An address by Mr Ron Fisher, Managing Director Raytheon Australia
To: The Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce
27 September 2005
Deputy premier, the Honourable Kevin Foley, the President of the Australia Israel Chamber Of Commerce, Mr Allan Bolaffi, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I am grateful to the chamber for their generous invitation to address you today and express my pleasure in being here with such a notable group within the Adelaide business community.
In light of this State’s proud victory in the battle to secure the Air Warfare Destroyer I thought it timely to provide you with a defence industry perspective of South Australia. As part of this discussion, I would like to give you a very brief overview of Raytheon Australia and our position in the defence market in order for you to be able to put my remarks in context.
Raytheon Australia
We are a wholly-owner subsidiary of Raytheon Company, the fourth largest defence company in the United States.
Raytheon has operated in Australia since the 1950’s, but our permanent presence was limited to a country manager and supporting administrative staff.
Following the Federal Government’s 1998 Defence And Industry Strategic Policy Statement that was aimed at growing an indigenous defence industry Raytheon decided to invest in Australia and I was given a charter to establish and grow a local company.
While Raytheon invested financially in Australia the more important investments have been in knowledge, skills, processes, and technology. To assist our development in these areas our parent company has been a valuable resource for us.
All of our employees in Raytheon Austrtalia are Australian, but if we need deeper specialist expertise or assistance in transferring technology to this country we can call upon any number of engineers and other experts to assist. We, in Raytheon Australia, use the term “Reach Back” to describe this key asset that allows us to draw upon Raytheon’s global resources.
Raytheon Australia made its first acquisition, a small military aerospace company, towards the end of 1999. This was followed by the naval business of Boeing, which enabled us with our naval customer to correct the original Collins combat system and has proved to be an excellent example of “Reach Back” to our parent company, which has over 30 years experience working on submarine combat and weapon systems for the USN.
Since then we have grown to be over 1,000 employees with operations in all of the mainland States and Territories with an annual turnover of A$325 million. This is dynamic growth in anyone’s language, but particularly so in the defence market.
The current disposition of the company is a function of strategic acquisitions, a desire to be close to our defence customers, and the availability of highly qualified and experienced engineers and technicians.
With regard to this latter point, we had previously identified Adelaide as a hub for the growth of engineering talent and are working with the University of Adelaide to foster arelationship based on mutually beneficial research and assisting undergraduate engineers to gain practical experience.
We are involved in a number of major programs including:
- The Air Warfare Destroyers, for which we are the Combat System – Systems Engineer;
- The replacement combat system on the Collins Class submarines, for which we are the Systems Integration Agent;
- The simulators for the upgraded F/A-18 Hornets;
- Avionics support for the RAAF Maritime Patrol Group and the Aircraft Research And Development Unit at RAAF Edinburgh, and the Strike and Reconnaissance Group at RAAF Amberley;
- In service support for the RAN Submarine Group at HMAS Stirling;
- The Electronic Warfare Training aircraft operated out of HMAS Albatross in Nowra and
- The Electronic Warfare Emulator Pod, which is to be fitted to the BAE Hawk aircraft.
We also provide technical support for the Joint Facility at Pine Gap, and the Deep Space Communications Complex outside Canberra.
Finally, we have a Geospatial Imagery business that takes telemetry data directly from a constellation of orbiting satellites through a dish and terminal equipment here in Adelaide to provide imagery and other value added products much faster than through the satellite operators in Europe and the USA. These satellites also have a potential role in wide area surveillance of our maritime approaches.
Nature of Defence Business
Turning to the nature of defence business in Australia, there are a number of characteristics that are probably unique and that most of you would covet for your own markets.
Firstly, our primary customer publishes a ten-year plan for capital equipment acquisition, or forward business. Although not irreversible the defence capability plan, or DCP as we call it, is proving to be surprisingly stable when compared to the process that preceded it. Because the DCP is “owned” by the Federal Government the rationale for changes is more transparent than when Defence put out its own unclassified version of internal documentation.
In the last ten years spending has varied between zero real growth to an annual increase of three per cent in real terms.
The total defence market now exceeds A$7 billion annually. This is a combination of capital equipment acquisition, minor equipment, and logistics expenditure.
This expenditure is underpinned by broad public support; and although some political differences have arisen over the last decade, Defence still enjoys largely bipartisan political support at a parliamentary level.
However, on the down side, we operate in a single market and one in which demand, at least for major acquisition programs, is uneven. It can be a long time between programs of the size of the AWDs and amphibious ships.
On the other hand, defence spends over A$2.5 billion each year on smaller programs, equipment and consumables that have a predictable pattern. The nature of our marketplace is also changing. The Federal Government has undertaken a number of reforms that have proved to be of considerable benefit to defence industry.
In addition to the DCP, the market has been advantaged by improvements to defence capability planning and equipment acquisition in line with the recommendations of Malcolm Kinnaird.
There has also been a greater focus on the need to improve the quality and quantity of skills available to the defence industry. There is clearly a demand for additional engineers, specialist technicians, key trades people and project managers.
Last year the Government announced its Skilling Australia policy and the defence industry program with the commitment of A$200 million over the next decade to assist defence companies to improve and broaden the skills of their workforces. This is a welcome recognition of this important issue and I commend the Defence Materiel Organisation’s CEO, Dr Stephen Gumley for acting as a vocal champion for this cause. However we also need to ensure that our Universities are aligned/partnered with defence industry and government to make certain we have a coherent program for the development of engineering in Australia.
The government has also embarked upon a series of defence industry strategic sector plans to ensure sustainable support for the ADF. The Electronic and Aerospace Sector Plans have been approved and promulgated, with the Land and Weapons Plans nearing completion.
These plans each take a different approach reflecting the characteristics of their respective sectors. The Electronic Sector Plan is particularly forward looking, as it is not prescriptive of industry, rather it establishes benchmarks and leaves it up to industry to determine how they are to be met. The fifth plan, naval shipbuilding and repair appears to be on hold, as this sector is effectively being restructured through the competitions for the AWD and Amphibious Ships, with the sale of ASC also to come.
South Australia
This is an appropriate point to move on to our perspectives of the role of the defence industry in South Australia.
In my view, just as the Federal Government sees an important role for South Australia as a defence industry hub the State Government has a similar vision.
Indeed, the South Australian Government has been the most proactive State government in attracting companies to relocate and position to win defence business. There is recognition that the defence industry is key sector of the State’s economy and that its growth is of strategic importance. As at the federal level I believe defence industry also enjoys bi-partisan support here in South Australia.
According to the State Government, defence contributes over A$1 billion annually to the Gross State Product, employing around 17,000 people including uniformed personnel. Further it is estimated that while South Australia receives only 6 per cent of Australia’s annual defence spend, in line with its share of the national population, it accounts for approximately 30 per cent of all capital expenditure.
Against this background, the Government here has taken several steps to promote defence industry. Two years ago it established its Defence Industry Advisory Board with an ambitious aim for the state to become the dominant location for Australian defence activity. This has been supported by the Government’s Defence Unit, a Defence Teaming Centre and the common goal over the next decade to double the defence industry’s contribution to Gross State Product and to grow employment levels in the industry to 28,000 people.
Although Raytheon’s initial presence in South Australia was a function of the companies we acquired we have built on those foundations with the backing of the Government and recently centralised our operations at a new location in the technology park at Mawson Lakes.
As I mentioned earlier, we had previously decided to make Adelaide one of our centres for growing our engineering workforce and are now looking at whether there might be other parts of the company’s operations that could benefit from being moved to South Australia.
The State Government has responded well to the issues affecting our business and indeed, shared by others in the industry, namely:
- The investment climate
- Cost structures
- Supporting infrastructure
- Industrial capability, and
- Our potential supply chain of local businesses.
For Raytheon Australia this latter point was particularly important because we took a decision early in the company’s development that we would not be highly vertically integrated. Rather we would seek capability partners, preferably among the smaller companies to provide specialist capabilities.
Of course, the availability of skilled people was a vital issue, noting that the nature of our business as a systems integrator means that we are seeking systems engineers rather than tradespeople.
By virtue of the size of the population it is inescapable that this is an issue for Adelaide. However, I am pleased by the Government’s proactive approach by challenging this issue on several fronts.
The Government has sought to establish a defence institute to focus on electronics and systems integration skills and to further these skills with a centre of excellence.
There is also the “Make The Move” campaign aimed at people in the 30-45 age brackets, which is coincident with our own target group, albeit we are looking for people with very defined skills and, preferably, experience.
Another State Government initiative I applaud is the recent agreement for the prestigious US University, Carnegie-Mellon, to establish an arm here, bringing the number of quality universities to four.
I would expect the AWD program to act as an additional lure for people to come to Adelaide; after all there will be few bigger programs to work on over the next ten years.
Together with other high profile programs the Government is hoping to be won by South Australian companies, the AWD will no doubt help stem the tide of inter-state migration that has historically affected this state.
The AWD
Turning to our role in the AWD program we are naturally excited to have been selected as the Combat System – Systems Engineer for Australia’s new Air Warfare Destroyers.
We are also delighted to be working with our fellow AWD alliance partners – the Commonwealth, ASC and the recently selected platform system designer, Gibbs and Cox on a venture that will not only provide a major leap in the Royal Australian Navy’s air warfare capabilities but will also be one of the most significant shipbuilding projects ever undertaken in this country.
As to our role as part of the alliance, Raytheon Australia is to:
- Integrate the non-Aegis elements of the combat system and conduct combat system trade studies;
- Develop the design of the complete AWD combat system in conjunction with the Commonwealth, the US Navy and its combat system engineering agent for the Aegis system, Lockheed Martin;
- Develop complete ship and integrated logistic support systems with ASC and Gibbs and Cox; and
- Develop project management and systems engineering structures and deliver mission systems integration.
This is a significant role indeed and one I believe that Raytheon is suitably qualified to execute.
Our involvement in the Collins Class submarines has provided us with the opportunity to demonstrate our expertise in mission systems integration to our Australian customer.
It also demonstrated our ability to work with both the Commonwealth and the USN in the integration of US-sourced combat systems into an Australian warship.
This, of course, was supported by the strong pedigree of our American parent and our ability to “Reach Back” and tap into that reservoir of expertise.
Since 1998 Raytheon has been the electronic and weapons systems integrator for the US Navy’s latest and most advanced surface combatant programme, the DD(X). In May of this year we were awarded a follow-on us$3 billion DD(X) ship system integration and detail design contract. Raytheon has also worked as the Whole Ship Systems Integrator for the US Navy’s latest amphibious ships, the LPD – 17 San Antonio Class. We will also be taking on an important role in the next generation of aircraft carriers, the CVN-78, with Raytheon’s selection earlier in the year as the industry lead for warfare systems integration of all onboard weapons systems and electronic operations.
Experience in this area and our ability to reach back to our American parent will be extremely valuable for the AWD program, helping to ensure the necessary transfer of experience and expertise to support the development of an effective solution for the AWD combat system. We see it as part of our role to flow some of this expertise to other smaller Australian companies with whom we will work on this large program.
Conclusion
As you can see, Raytheon Australia is very optimistic about our own future in Australia’s defence industry and the contribution that our industry can make to this State.
Challenges remain but I can see that there are strong efforts at both the State and Federal level to address these concerns, particularly in the skills area.
We also recognise our own responsibility as significant players in the defence marketplace to play our own role to provide for the industry’s growth.
This is our commitment to you today as I hope that Raytheon Australia can secure for itself an important part of South Australia’s future prosperity.
Thank you very much. [speech ends]
I've just found a great pair of June 2004 stories on an electronics industry news page.
One begins, "Defence Minister Hill has announced that Australia and the U.S. intend to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on co-operation in missile defence next month.
The other begins with "South Australian Premier Mike Rann announced details last week. of an aggressive plan to double the size of the defence industry in South Australia, and to increase defence employment from 16,000 to 28,000 workers by 2013. In Washington Mr Rann met with the leaders of Raytheon and other leading US defence contractors"
It's a beautiful piece of syncronisation (page 15 here) between the Governments and defence companies, and mostly we've been none the wiser.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Police on Wednesday arrested nine protesters who broke into the Northern Ireland software center of U.S. defense contractor Raytheon Co and smashed windows and computers.
The protesters in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city, said they blamed Massachusetts-based Raytheon for designing missile-guidance systems and other military software being supplied by the United States to Israel in its current conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Raytheon declined to comment.
The Federal Government has just announced that the former Adelaide Submarine Corporation is to be put up for sale.
[extract]
Finance Minister Nick Minchin announced today that following a scoping study into the possible sale of the company, the Government had decided to put it up for a competitive tender sale.
He said the tender would most likely begin in late 2007, with a sale completed by the second half of 2008.
The sale decision had been expected.
Senator Minchin said a tender sale would protect the company's long term interests.
"It is vital that ASC continue to have access to essential technical assistance from international partners and governments," he said.
"A trade sale will allow the Government to ensure that the company's new owners are acceptable to overseas technology suppliers.
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South Australia, home to 20 % of the world's uranium
Figuring that if Australia has 36%, and South Australia has three quarters of that, then our state must surely, apart from any other reason, be one of the most strategically important places in the world.
How could any self-professed superpower feel anything but duty-bound to protect such an important asset, especially if it might one day depend on the ore for its survival? What an Achilles Heel the place could become if it's defence was left to the natives.
So we get B-2s on bombing simulations from Guam, a run of "joint training exercises" that will turn parts of the State into simulations of the Persan Gulf and Afghanistan, Christ knows what monitoring the desert from just outside our vertical territory limit of 100km.
In the meantime, while Pine Gap listens to Al Qaeda phone calls and pinpoints co-ordinates for massive bomb strikes on Iraqi houses, Jindalee monitors the sky for incoming missiles with which Australia has nothing to retaliate against (until the defence corporations build the AWDs). Surely there's never a US Warship too far away, ready to respond to a JORN warning? If we ever needed one to remain handy, now would be the time.
When I get near these trains of thought (pun intended) my mind keeps going back to the series of books call The Amtrak Wars Wikipedia sets the worldscape well:
[extract]
Above ground activity, both transport and defence, are conducted by rail. If Patrick Tilley was writing the Amtrak books today, he no doubt would have factored in the Bush Administration,l Halliburton and Australia as a second Amtrak colony, a plan B survival outpost (Asimov proposed such a concept in his classic Foundation series)
[extract]
And the knowldege and hub that is being created in Adelaide is twinned where? Why, The Bush Family's home city of Austin, Texas, of course! The only thing the place really needed was a port, and now they've got Adelaide and decent high speed realtime data transfer
Given global corporations' favouring of working from bare earth instead of repairing pre-existing infrastructure, Australia is a much better locale in which to create such an environment, and doing so would create an infastructure for maintaining defence of the huge fuel reserve. An Asimov-style safety net would be considered handy to the Texans, no doubt.
I wonder how an enemy might look at all of this? Would it make one think that, given that further implementation of forward planning would eliminate many chances of such, an attack on Australia might be a "now or never" situation?
Apologies for the rambling... I'm trying to make sense of things while holding my breath until the September 11 anniversary has come and gone without sounding the Trump that will herald the Neocons' Rapture.
Army expansion
And now another $10 billlion expansion in the army and a battalion for Adelaide!
Meanwhile our public school buildings have holes in the walls and our hospitals become unsafe because the funds aren't there to pay enough nurses.
But of course they're nothing to do with the federal government - it's those rotten States who don't spend their money wisely!
Expansion
We were due to get a battalion anyway, in the form of 3RAR and part of the Darwin troops. Now Hamish is going to have some new mates hanging around to be ready to jump into the Pacific when needed. I seem to remember something about 1,000 US troops up there for "joint training" next year. Fill-ins till we get our act together.
I'm optimistically wondering if Howard has finally gotten the message, from both within Australia and Asia, that large numbers of Armourican soldiers hanging around isn't going to make him a popular "deputy sherriff". Still, the Indonesians are smelling a rat already.
[extract from Jakarta Post]
I"ve believed from the outset that that along with joint training opportunities the main reason for the Adelaide-Darwin railway was so that our troops, especially in the northern "wet", would be able to remain perpetually combat-ready and still able to deploy from Darwin at short notice. The battalion in Adelaide isn't likely to fool the Indonesians either.
We'll probably need more when the moves southward and upward begin. That Raytheon bloke wasn't in Antartica for sightseeing purposes. Given that the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 "guarantees freedom of scientific research in Antarctica and prohibits military and nuclear activities" you could guess that feasibility studies would be extant for a future variation of that restriction. In the meantime Australia and America's joint interests will be serviceable from South Australia
The idea that interests me the most at the minute is that when the Carlyle-developed scramjet technology gets up to speed troops would be deployable from Woomera to anywhere in the world within around three hours. Now that's leapfrogging to lilypads in style.
Robyn, we ain't seen nothin' yet!
Tanks, Robyn
Good to hear from you again, Robyn. I think what I'm suffering from is watching the defence propaganda develop with no resistance, and hearing yesterday of our next generation being referred to in terms of a resource to be exploited made my blood boil. Fair enough, any industry would do the same, but this is an industry centred on killing.
I know we had to make a decision regarding what employment opportunities will be around when the cars go, but where were the feasibility studies into other fields that might maximise our job creation chances.
As you say we were never given a choice on being a Defence State... it was foisted on us via number plates and bus-stop ads. I have a feeling that I was the first person to use it in the 'Tiser, two years back when I found it on a defence site. The line I used then was that every coin in our pocket would be from the loss of a life, and asked how loud thirty pieces of silver would be. I've written letter after letter on the topic, most of which have been thankfully printed, but in the shadow of Premier Rann's campaign to become President of Australia (as I believe to be the case) my little missives are nothing)
Thanks for the support.. I have no intentions of stopping.. However it's becoming time to developea counter-strategy and begin advocating it. Otherwise I'll still be here whinging as the first AWD is christened, and the our ex-automotive workers refurbish M-1 tanks and guided missiles.
Depressing Defence State
I accompanied a 16 yr-old fascinated by the field of mechatronics to the Open Day talks in the Engineering department at the University of Adelaide on Sunday. If she gets in and then through, her job prospects are very good. Demand for engineers is so high that new graduates are earning 6-figure salaries. We were told of one earning double that of his lecturer.
It's very depressing to think that much of that is in defence, indeed to be "reassured" that any downturn in demand in the automobile industry will be more than compensated by increases in defence. I’m already imagining the kinds of dilemmas she would find herself in. It’s so sad when so much else could be achieved by all those bright young minds in the room if we, as a society, chose to put more of the money we put into defence into things like alternative energy technologies or water conservation.
I say “chose” but I don’t think we’ve actually been given the choice. I’m certain South Australians were never asked if we wanted to be “The Defence State”.
Keep talking Richard, if you can. There will be more personal costs than rewards, but we need you.
The view from the inside
I have to admit that Ron Fisher's address to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce smacks of "can I do a deal for you?". Worrying stuff in view of the recent US-fostered Israeli agression in Lebanon. But what can I say? I work in the Defence Industry myself, hell, I even worked on the replacement combat system for the Collins Class submarines (though not with Raytheon). It would be hypocritical of me to start bagging the head of a Defence company, not to mention pretty stupid since I might be doing myself out of a job. But, hey, isn't that what all this is about? Job security, economics, etc. You are fighting a losing battle if you think that people would rather have good moral principles but no jobs. I imagine most defence execs, not to mention politicians, see weapons sales in this light. Good or bad, in a western capitalist country, this is the way things are. I keep telling myself that defence is defence, but it isn't always is it? When you sponsor or support an illegal invasion of a foreign country, is that defence, or is it a big lie?
Let me tell you what people on the inside (of a defence company), particularly people who have worked in the industry for lengthy periods, say. They say that they are not to blame if some foreign government "misuses" weapons that they helped design or produce. In other words it's pass the buck, which works right up to the point where you start dismembering civilians with cluster bombs. Have a listen to some of the pathetic excuses the Israeli government is using to justify its disgraceful actions in Lebanon.
When I started working in defence, I believed what I was told, and mostly it was true - that most of the technology is used for peaceful purposes (eg surveillance) and that weapons, platforms and delivery systems, etc, are only necessary to defend the country from attack. Increasingly however I can see cracks in this argument. I fully sympathise with the courageous people who try to find out where arms sales are really going and what ends up happening with the arms (ie who gets killed). You are definitely fighting an "asymmetric war", but you have my support.
Post-note. It would help if the mainstream media really did show people the bloodshed that happens in war, rather than talking about casualty figures, typically for the allied troops, and treating dead civilians (when they do mention them) as "collateral damage". But then it might embarrass the politicians.
the ultimate 'weapon': F.—I.W.
G'day Richard Tonkin, and is this what you mean by MYOB?
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
That link is a fine parable.
Accidentally I attended a defence lecture this morning, by the head of a major company. He prefaced his rhetoric by saying how, as the last warship was due to roll down the gangway in 2017 his company was focussing on developing the current crop of primary school kids into technicians that could fulfill his contractual requirements.
The above sentiment was disguised in the pseudo-benevolence of providing a level of education that would not be otherwise be available to many of the local populace, but still left my gut churning all day. I was thinking about, twenty years hence, a population with a similar sentiment to the one in that story, and an analagous end result.
If I sound a little obscure I apologise... there might be another piece in this tale in a couple of months. In the meantime all I will say is that the contemplation of a society indoctrinated from birth to be defence drones is closer, from what I heard today, than I realised.
We might have become a society of sculptors, musicians and thespians had the tax dollars being spent on creating a defence service culture been spent instead on developing such artistic skills to appropriate levels... instead the billions have been spent for the designated cause of warfare support, and as Geoff Pahoff wisely pointed out (occasional flashes of brilliance, that man has) become a more likely cultural environment to receive a major military attack in the process.
I had hoped, in my deeds and scrawls, to maybe help sway some opinions to avert certain decisions being made. Way too late for that.
I hope my daughter, if she chooses to breed, will raise my grandkids elsewhere. That being the case, I do not need to be around this town when all these organic defence servants are replaced by the next generation of machinery. The Luddite movement will be a fart in a baked bean factory by comparison. I wonder what the contemporary equivalent of Mother Goose will be read at bedtime.? Mother Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird singing in the dead of night, or was that the night of the dead?
And so to bed.
nobody listens
Frank:
So - come up to the lab,
And see what's on the slab.
I see you shiver with antici - (3 seconds) - pation.
But maybe the rain
Isn't really to blame.
So I'll remove the cause (chuckles)
But not the symptom.
[rhps]
These remarks are prompted by Richard Tonkin's complaint, "I give evidence substantiating my hypotheses and nobody even twitches." (G'day Richard.)
What I find so distasteful 'in here,' is the pro-'status quo's; (in no particular order) the pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-US, pro-Howard, pro-GWoT, pro-'rip-offs', the whole despicable pro-nastiness lot. It's not as if people are not entitled to their own opinion (of course they are; and even if not 'entitled' they'll have their opinions anyway, some may think just to spite), but it's what they're for, and how they spew it that is just so horrible.
I challenged one, not wholly seriously, to disclose whether s/he did it (i.e. pushing a pro-'status quo' paradigm) for 'love or money' - never expecting any sensible answer, and of course there was none. There is no sensible answer (always IMHO, of course) other than that the pro-'status quo's must be getting something out of doing what they do; one even going so far and delighting me by screeching "What's in it for me?"
I have despaired over many a long year; seeing how wrongly many things are done, and how easily things may be done better, more 'correctly', more fairer. Whenever I'm silly enough to point out common failings in 'the system', the overwhelming response is "So? - That's just how it is."
Well, my answer to that is this: "You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it." - German Proverb. I heard somewhere that there is a supposed lack of a workable philosophy 'on the left'. Q: why? A: possibly, 'the left' has been bludgeoned into impotence, mainly by the forces supporting unfair, rip-off type profits, possibly only because "That's where the money is." But it's not where the fairness is, and filthy lucre as ill-gotten gains is immoral.
We were long-ago warned about the 'military/industrial complex,' then we got "Shock and Awe (murder for oil)" and the ever increasing 'drum-beat' of the impending climate-catastrophe ('greedastrophe'®) as competitors for our attention. Greed and the military/industrial complex find their almost 'perfect' alloy in Halliburton, coming soon/already here. And with our current political systems and set-up, almost unstoppable.
I have suggested various answers to the above 'suite' of problems. I have talked of the sheople with their faces glued to their TVs (or stuck up their arses; it's not much different), I have said that some sort'a direct involvement of the sheople unshackled is required; a) education/truth in news, b) active involvement & c) a way of expressing opinion topic-by-topic (CIRs, say, without factional domination). I have talked about an acceptable morality (no lies, no cheating, no theft and no murder) and all together now: "Fair go, ya mug!"
But nobody listens.
-=*end*=-
PS But whadda 'bout rhps/Frank?
Oh yeah. Stop fiddling with the symptoms; go after the causes.
"There are, unfortunately, terrorists who would rather see Australia as some kind of islamo-fascist state," Costello said.
This comes pretty close the ultimate in intelligence-insulting. But that's what we get all'a time - basically from both the Lib/Lab ugly twins, from the MSM and the pro-'status quo's - but why? What's in it for them - except power and ever-more and filthier, unfair rip-offs? (All rushing us into the greedastrophe.)
This is not to say that we shouldn't be careful or that terrorism just doesn't exist; but you only have to open your eyes to see that Pape's "Dying to Win" is 'on the money'; terrorism is (almost toadally®) asymmetric warfare against illegal occupiers, the causes of almost all of our terrorism troubles, daaarlings, are perfectly clear - but absolutely not 'as advertised' in the MSM.
What are you gunna do about it?
Prodding conversations
Phil Kendall, I'm sitting in a bar last night, with the anti-Downer editorial in yesterday's Oz, the repudiation of the theory that Kovco was aping the Cranberries song Zombie being nullified by his mates (thank God), the announcement of the spaceport, the impending Iranian decisision all spinning around my head and all I can talk about is the footy and the weather. What's the point in talking about anything else when nobody will listen anyway?
Some days I'd like to remove my emotions, ethics and intellect and be as happy as all the selfish people growing fat watching neighbours. while looking for a second helping. On the other hand... there's work to be done.
It gets a little lonely at times (all together now.. awww) but let's not let that stop us from following our instincts and our sense of "doing the right thing"'. That also means resisting the tempation to go out and buy an electric cattle prod (myob).
NASA project for Woomera announced
Mark Ross, the more I read up on defamation law the less I feel able to publish in terms of interprative prose.. . It has been to suggested to me to turn everything I have into a "political thriller", but this wouldn't do what I hope to achieve eventually. Suffice it to say that publishing the trails of skullduggery as a "reality piece' might keep me busy in court for quite some time. Disguised into fiction the chain of events would be less of an eye opener than what will, I hope, unfold.
I could've "journalismated" much of the dialogue published in this piece, but when you have information like this coming "from the horse's mouth" why would you want to? If people care to hoist themselves on their own petards, then all the better as far as I'm concerned.
It'll take time for truth to come out, and for supportive evidence for postulations to reveal itself , but it will eventually.
The Raytheon speech confirmed to me that what has been happening in Adelaide has been carefully contrived. Now I've just seen the main story in today's Advertiser, of the commercial spaceport trials to be conducted by NASA at Woomera/.
[excerpt]
[excerpt]
If you've followed the Halliburton's Adelaide link you'll know the possible uses I'd thought about for Woomera. When that plan for a reactor to be built there hit the press it looked like nuclear fuelled space transport wasn't too far off, and now a variant of Arthur C Clarke's noting of the signifigance of the place ( in 1947) is today's big news. The head of the company conducting the tests is today telling Adelaide that ""Woomera was chosen because it can be used for polar and equatorial launches and because of its clean land areas." He should have credited Arthur for originating the concept from which he's profiting.
A sixty year old prediction has just come partially true, except that instead of, as Clarke perceived, Great Britain becoming a superpower because of its control of space travel via ownership of Woomera, it will now be the U.S., from it's newly converted colony, that dominates the spaceways from the middle of South Australia.
I was having such a lovely evening... now I'm trying to find out if Australia's 100km vertical territory border is still on the books. Only the heavens know what's happening at kilometre 101 and beyond.. I'm guessing nuclear extraterrestrial propulsion might be being tested just beyond our "backyard fence" as we speak
Craig and Hamish, it's moments like these, watching unfolding inevitabilities of of the U.S' pre-ordained fait accompli for S.A. that really give me the sh*ts. This state has become a bumper-sized American base, and we local savages are supposed to feel grateful.
Give Us the Narrative
G'day Richard.
From my perspective, your work is very interesting but also overwhelming. In a sense, you've got too much info on offer. Because you've been with this from the beginning, you understand the relevancy and inter-connectedness of all that you've uncovered. The casual reader, however, is apt to get lost in all of this. Over the years you've shown us thousands of trees. Perhaps it's time to give us the forest.
Thanks to you, I understand that South Australia is becoming the Colorado of the antipodes. I would very much enjoy seeing you collate all your research and turn it into a narrative which presents the history, status quo and future of Adelaide's defence industry. We need to know what are the pros and cons of the situation, what scandals and legal infelicities have been uncovered and, most importantly, what are the future ramifications of us joyously fellating the US Military industry for the sake of economic growth?
You've proved yourself a first class investigator. Now it's time to become the journalist and tell the story.
No way, it's not a waste of time
Richard, I think you've correctly identified an eastern seaboard bias in the thinking of most Australians. I'll admit to being guilty of that too often.
Remember last year when the AWD contracts were awarded? My primary concern at that time was that my local dockyards had lost out. It's selfish I know, but as I own rental properties near where Tenix would have built the three ships, I'd been hoping they'd beat ASC in the race for the "at least" $6 billion contracts.
That said though, I know that if my home town looked set to become near completely cloaked in khaki I'd be investigating the same lines as you do. There is no way your work is a waste of time Richard, without it I'd probably be still thinking about making rental income off the back of defense industry moves rather than about how else it may effect my family and future generations.
No Parochialism Here - Just Being Sensible
I went to Adelaide once. Spent a month there one day.
A good place to put a defence industry, I thought.
Afterall, if we must host a nuclear target for compelling broader geopolitical strategic reasons, it may as well be ...
Spending a year proving a point is a waste of time
I give evidence substantiating my hypotheses and nobody even twitches. It's hard to understand how when so many abstract speculations are substantiated by a CEO there's not even a hint of "hey he's on the right track" or "hey the unspeakable a**hole is at it again.... just nothing.
The one major thing I've learned in most recent years is that Australia's mind is focussed on the eastern seaboard. Unfortunately, or serendipitously if you're an energy/defence psychologist, what the rest of the world is most interested in is located to the centre and the west of the country.
Demographic ethnocentricity is probably the easiest mindset to manipulate when it comes to the particular version of Regime Change that is being applied to Australia. Sorry if I sound frustrated but the callous on my forehead (from banging my head...) is growing daily.
What if I told you that beachfront properties are about to lose their view (and values) from copyrighted land reclamation... would that raise a hue and cry? It will when it's been proven. The Money will protect itself, as usual.
We're being, in this day and age, treated as ignorant savages by global corporations and wearing earmuffs to help us misunderstand. Little dollar signs in small minds are causing billions, in trade and knowledge, to leave our shores and alll western Sydney cares about is the next tax cut.
Frankly I've had a gutful at the moment.
Salud Richard
Hey Richard, maybe it's time for you not to think about it for a few days. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who considers you one of Webdiary's unique treasures - someone who follows and researches a story, and a story with extremely high stakes. I haven't agreed with all your conclusions along the way (indeed you've retracted some yourself) but your basic thesis that Adelaide has become the hub for Australia's defence industry, which is really an outpost of the US defence industry, Halliburton leading the charge, is very well made I think, and not being clearly made anywhere else that I know of. So anyone concerned about the production of weapons in Australia would be crazy not to follow your work carefully, in my view. For my part, it doesn't mean I have anything to say.
Your point about people's parochialism toward the local is well enough made. It's not a new idea but you have given it a disturbing angle. People's propensity to 'think locally' can indeed be used manipulatively by cynical forces, and we could add things like nuclear waste dumps. People do (probably naturally) have a parochialism toward the local. Keep something away from the population centres, and there is a much greater chance something won't reach the national consciousness. It is I think one of the factors you're dealing with.
Salud Richard. You're a trooper.
SA Defence Export ethics (ABC Transcript Tuesday)
The S.A. Australian Democrats' Sandra Kanck participated in this discussion on ABC-891 on Tuesday morning, which was the catalyst for the piece.
Sandra Kanck, Democrat (891ABC 8.41-8.48) Call for a guarantee that SA's weapons aren't being used to kill civilians in the Middle East
Matthew Abraham: In South Australia we make ... weaponry and we make gizmos that make sure they hit the targets. We are, the Premier keeps telling us, the Defence State. Sandra Kanck wants to know where those weapons are going and who they're killing. In particular she wants a ... guarantee from the Premier that they are not being used in the bloody attacks, using her words, upon the civilian populations of both Israel and Lebanon. ... Good morning to you Sandra ... Firstly, why do you want a guarantee on this ... if we're the defence State and we make weapons then do we not accept that weapons primary purpose are to kill people?)
Sandra Kanck: Well I'm not sure that South Australians want us to be part of a death industry. There's a bit of a difference between a defence industry and a death industry ... if we have any sort of weaponry; whether it's a cog in a wheel, whether it's part of a missile delivery system that is raining bombs on innocent civilians then South Australia ought not to be part of that.
David Bevan: What inquiries have you made to find out which products go where?
SK: I've had my own researcher working on this ... doing a lot of web searching and so on and I also had the parliamentary library ... we could only reach dead ends. There's always this commercial in confidence stuff ... if we are being involved in an attack industry then they don't want us to know who they're selling stuff to. We do know, however, that we are part of something called the defence teaming centre which the Rann Government has set up, and that has part of it's brief ... "To increase defence technology and related exports by South Australian companies, particularly to Asia and the Gulf cooperation council states in the Middle East".
Bevan: Our phone lines are open. What do you think? Should we just accept that these industries are here ... our governments ... have made an awful lot of effort to try and attract them to South Australia. We have a long history of defence indsutry here in South Australia, should we be worried about where those products go? Are there protocols in place to make sure that only the good guys get them? ... 1300 222 891)
Abraham:... With the uranium mining and the yellow cake exports we go to great pains to make sure that they go to countries where they will be used for commercial use and not for military use ... there are lot of protocols in place. Sandra Kanck what are you able to tell us about the protocols that are in place to ensure...
SK: Well I don't know how you can have weapons that aren't going to be used as weapons. I mean ... are we sort of in fairyland here ... we're happy to take the jobs. We're happy to take the sales tax and the other advantages that flow to the population? ...) ... that's the question I'm asking ... Are we manufacturing weapons to kill people? Is that our role? ... if it is, is it a role that South Australians want to be involved in?
Bevan: But can you draw those distinctions ...? You say there are good weapons and there are bad weapons.
SK: I'm not ... one of the first Senators that the Democrats had, Colin Mason, who used to say that Australia ... at the national level, should be like a hedgehog - as prickly as can be but no real threat to anyone but anyone who tries to touch us is sure going to get ... a bit of a hit from all those spines ...
Abraham: Well that would be if we were defending ourselves but we know we export ... a lot of this technology ...
SK: And Im asking the question - Do South Australians want to be part of war mongering? ...
Caller Ben: ... Having been in the defence force for a while, it puts a lot of money into the State's economy ... selling these weapons of war as such but I'd like to just see we stop doing that and how much effect that actually has on the State's economy ... surely it would be pouring a hell of a lot of money into it?
Bevan: ... It's an enormous part of the economy ... That's a good question though, I wonder what the numbers are?
Caller Don: ... if we were ever involved in a war ... South Australia would be the prime target for bombs and whatever ...
Abraham: ... Sandra Kanck have you formally asked the Premier or are you doing so via the program and your press release?
I'm doing it via the program and the press release but I think it's likely to be a question in parliament when we resume.
Abraham: Okay well he's never averse to listening to the program and responding we can assure you. You're linking this to the international arms trade. What do you mean by that because the term, arms trade, really does carry overtones of deals done in the night, people wearing balaclavas ...
SK: Well again I'm posing a lot of questions. I don't have the answers and that's been my problem. I've had the parliamentary library working on it. We've not been able to come up with anything. I'm looking for some reassurances. I'd love Mike Rann to come onto your program and say, no civilians have been killed in Lebanon or Israel as a consequence of our industry here. If he can't give that guarantee then we really must ask a very very hard question on whether or not we want to be part of an industry that delivers death.
Abraham: ... we'll keep an eye on this one.