the only beatings I dish out as a fifth generation aussie is to people who beat there women, and those that accuse all of us of doing it:mad:

do you mean in general, with or without ordnance, anti-shipping, recon, SEAD, low level bombing, interdiction?

so canada bought some leo 2’s ………..so what? so its NATO’s defacto tank……. newsflash, we arenot part of NATO! how many of the leo equipped armys are going to deploy to australia to defend an indonesian invasion? none! why would america not support us in that scenario? apart from briain, no one else would care! the australian tanks are here for strictly defensive purposes!

and the reason i know australians would deploy and use american tanks is because a relative withe the ‘ironsides’ when to the US for a month to work out the logistics of the situation. and on that trip were a couple of 5th Aviation guys working the logistics of using american chinooks!

no, i believe the deal did come with the necessary support equipment. yes we paid a bit extra, and there was a delay with the flat bed trucks and railway cars. but also if we did have to use them in anger around australia, once our tanks were disembarked, we can use them to move the american M-1s around. and it frees up the smaller ones to transport other armoured vehicles. win win!

on abit of a side note- with the need to retire the caribous, what will be better- C-27J, or just more C-130J?

and i’ve been told that another two C-17s will be purchased next year, and on the return flight each will carry a CH-47!

buy no way should you assume that the rest of of military isn’t deployable- but due to current numbers of abrams and such they wont be deployed. more than likely a squadron of personnel would deploy, to use american tanks, even I am capable of deployment if i want to. different story if they do eventually stand up a 2nd Armoured regiment

WE WILL NEVER DEPLOY 1st ARMOURED REGIMENT OVERSEAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NEVER EVER! the 59 tanks will never leave Australian soil.
the abrams are part of the overall battle picture to defend this nation! they are trained in slowing up an armoured thrust down the north-south corridor! or to hit the left flank of an armored advance from the north west!the most likely reinforcements in this picture would be the US! what armour forces would they send? abrams, stryker and LAV-25s and bushmasters! if we were to deploy, it would be personnel to take over a squadron of US tanks- same with the proposal to send crews for chinooks instead of aircraft them selves. And why would we ever deploy abrams to timor? HEAT rounds are a bit overkill on a nation we are trying to build! Indonesia advancing over the east timorese border? if they wanted that they would have to neutralise us first.
that why leo was the poor choice and we went for the best fit- the abrams:D

B-2s-because B-52s are not going to last forever

F-111- could have performed many more roles than it did

F-14 tomcat 21- because you are kidding yourself if you think the F/A-18 is an interceptor

KC-10- why on earth would you stop at 60?

F-14- because if they lost a mission when russias strategic bomber stopped patrolling, well…..there back!

are these the examples used for flight deck movement practice? if its true they are kept for a reserve, is it a conscious government decision or is it just the RN puttin the nations security first before politics?