Kym Bergmann: Let’s start with the big picture. How do you feel about the DSR? Has it achieved the right balance?
Rob Nioa: The first thing is that it’s just a relief to get it out publicly because it has held everything up for six months. Whether it needed to or not, it has had an impact on things such as decisions that should have just been waved through as part of the normal process but were not.
Rightly or wrongly, people in Defence felt that they were not able to make decisions and we have lost half a year.
The second point is that it has been honest – though the public version clearly has less detail than many people would like. I can only hope that the classified parts of the review went into greater depth on some strategic issues.
Overall, it looks like it’s heading in the right direction. It’s very specific around some of the points about the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise (GWEO), which I think are very helpful.
It looks like the government is very focused on trying to achieve outcomes in accordance with the recommendations of the DSR – and that they will hold the department to account. The early signs are that it’s going to be a meaningful document and it will be a roadmap or a blueprint for moving forward.
Kym: Are you already seeing signs that things are starting to move post-DSR, or is it more of an expectation? Also, I noticed sprinkled throughout it references to offthe-shelf and the need for speed, which is often code for buying more stuff FMS.
Rob: Yes, that’s a potential trap. One of the highest risk outcomes would be for the department to interpret the DSR in that way, or to take it as some sort of marching order for more FMS purchases – or even just directing orders straight to foreign companies.
In my view FMS is redundant and no longer fit for purpose in regard to munitions.
If we are going to rely on FMS – or even think that we are going to get any meaningful addition to our GWEO inventory within a short time via FMS – that would be a very flawed assumption.
I’m already aware of massive global delays in obvious, high profile products such as guided weapons and missiles – the sorts of things that have been publicly named as priorities. Many things are actually in short supply – including artillery ammunition.
The fact is that the US itself can’t get many of these products for its own use, so it’s hardly going to turn around and sell them to us via FMS while Ukraine requires them in an active conflict. Other nations have placed multiple orders in the last 12 months, meaning they are far ahead of Australia – plus there are plenty of gaps in the US inventory which will need to be filled ahead of Australian requirements.
A decision to order a munition via FMS now is actually a decision not to get that product.
This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the full story click here.
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