Around the world there is a growing dichotomy as defence ministries faced with constrained budgets strive desperately to maintain credibility and create sophisticated, integrated defence systems. At the same time, defence planners are coming to terms with the new world order which continues to develop unpredictably.
Despite signs of a reversal of the trend for ever-declining defence budgets and increasing acquisition reform, outsourcing and private finance initiatives, defence spending is still stretched to breaking point and most nations face capability gaps and unfulfilled desires. As a result, the gap between the USA and other countries continues to grow at an alarming rate.
As this decade develops the first world will see an increasing dependence on integrated - or network centric - infrastructures linking air, land and sea platforms, be they manned or unmanned, combat or surveillance, sophisticated or basic.
Australia, for example, is a typical medium sized player with a strong desire to play a regional role and a willingness to participate in global actions. But as the issues emerging at last week's Australian International Airshow at Avalon, near Melbourne, revealed, the country is struggling to fulfil those ambitions within a modest budget.
The country spends A$3.3 billion ($1.08 billion) a year on equipment and technology, a large chunk of which in the next few years will be directed towards the A$2.03 billion Wedgetail airborne early warning and control platform: deliveries are due to start in late 2006. Wedgetail is a crucial element of Australia's all-encompassing surveillance/command and control infrastructure that includes a host of other programmes. Wedgetail's critical nature means that programmes have been cancelled while others have been shelved until well after Wedgetail is due to enter service. The latter policy means the Royal Australian Air Force will carry on with its ageing, piston-engined de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribous and its Boeing F/A-18 Hornet fighters will not receive an electronic warfare upgrade. Lockheed Martin/Alenia and EADS CASA spent over A$30 million competing for the Caribou replacement, while other companies feel they too have wasted valuable resources bidding on programmes that have been repeatedly delayed or abandoned.
During the show, exasperated senior aerospace and defence industry representatives expressed dissatisfaction with the Australian procurement system. Meanwhile, the Association of Australian Aerospace Industries is warning that further rationalisation of the sector will hinder realisation of the government's plan to maintain an indigenous defence industry as a strategic capability.
The story is repeated elsewhere, in Africa, Latin America and Europe. Countries everywhere are struggling to match limited funds to their aspirations.
Overcoming the problem will not be easy. Defence budgets are not going to increase overnight, and unless a solution is found, a two-tier defence capability will emerge among the nations that typically support United Nations' efforts, making the task of providing humanitarian relief, peacekeeping or applying pressure against recalcitrant regimes all the more difficult and further polarising the imbalance between the nations that provide significant assets - predominately the USA - and the rest.
A solution, although not one that will be acceptable in many countries, would be to buy systems off the shelf, which reduces costs as no technology acquisition, customisation or local manufacture is required. This, however, would devastate indigenous capabilities and destroy any pretence of defence self-sufficiency.
Alternatively, nations could combine to develop and procure more systems collaboratively. But such programmes rarely run smoothly, which forces costs skyward and typically creates unacceptable delays.
Leaping the chasm between desire and reality is not going to be easy, but defence ministries will need to find a way and whatever solution is found, it will have to be innovative and not a rehash of previous funding systems. Most importantly, it will have to balance political and industrial needs with fiscal realities.
Source: Flight International
