Australian JSF, what's going wrong?

Trouble for jet fighter deal
By Robert Gottliebsen
March 14, 2005
From: “The Australian” Newspaper

THE biggest government purchasing program in Australia’s history, the $12 billion order for the F-35, or Joint Strike Fighter, appears to be going horribly wrong.

And when Australia’s defence chiefs meet at today’s air force conference, the problem of replacing Australia’s ageing air fleet should dominate the agenda.
The difficulty is that, embedded in the defence tradition is a view that you never admit a mistake and constantly justify what you have done, no matter what happens.

In the next month or so, the Senate committee report on abuses and cover-ups in the defence force will almost certainly graphically illustrate this basic weakness in defence decision-making.