Fitted for, not with

Recent media reports on the usefulness or otherwise of various frontline ADF platforms emphasises the need for Defence to not just invest in future wars, but also demonstrates its inability to fight current wars because of decisions to fit platforms ‘for, not with’ various important systems such as ESM/EWSP, medevac kits, datalinks and other modern communications, and weapons.

The habit of buying platforms with a view to gradually upgrading them to a fully combat capable configuration seems a strange one in that it gives the operators a shiny new platform upon which to train and develop certain skill levels, but one which can’t be taken to war because they haven’t received vital offensive or defensive systems necessary for safely fighting that war.