Defence Review 2000
R1-5A137
Russell Offices
Canberra
ACT, 2600
Submission:- The Defence Australia
Defence:-The People Hope for a Defence System
-The People Pay for a Defence System
-The Politician Spend for a Defence System
-The Bureaucrats Ensure we Never have a Defence System
-Our Soldiers Die for the Lack of a Defence System
-Eventually Australia will have to defend itself again. Will your Families Die for the Lack of a Defence System?
Dear Sirs
The Hon. Alex Somlyay our local member of parliament sent me one of your information packs and suggested that I forward you this submission.
Experience
After three years in the 22nd Cheshire Regiment, cadets and three years in the Grenadier Guards, I completed a four-year course in engineering and was employed as a toolmaker/fitter turner.
In the mid seventies I commenced business for myself importing exporting and repairing firearms. During the late seventies and eighties, as a consultant, I designed and assisted with the production of many firearms and firearm related products for government-owned factories in Yugoslavia, Vietnam China and civilian factories in the Philippines and the United Kingdom. In the early eighties Owen Guns began to import most of our firearms in parts assembling them on site in Gympie, selling retail and wholesale.
As a valuer and agent for Interarms, (which at that time was the largest non government firearm dealer in the world buying small arms from one country and selling them to others) I inspected government arsenals in various countries, Yugoslavia, China, Vietnam, United Kingdom reporting on type, condition, serviceability spare parts, price, cost of storage and shipping.
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Experience in Defence Force Problems
In 1988 one of my duties was to inspect with a view to purchase 100,000, 303 Lee Enfield rifles, 13000 Smith & Wesson revolvers, 19000 Bren Guns, 4500 Vickers Machine Guns, all Associated Spare Parts and Mortar equipment which was being put up for tender by the Australian Government. I inspected this equipment at three Army main supply depots in three different States of Australia.
After serving in the British Army and being a guest of many distinctively diverse Armies in the world I presumed that I had seen every ‘military cock up’ that was conceivable. I was wrong, when I found out the civilian workers in the depots were not surprised that parts and equipment were stored under the wrong identification number because they had no idea of the subject matter, and no idea how to rectify the identification problems no idea that their was a problem until at great cost, parts were returned from some obscure Army base with a complaint that it was nothing like what was ordered. Parts such as this were lying around still mis labelled, no one knew where to put them as they did n’t know what they were or where they should be.
In my Army time the store were run by ‘Old Sweats’ who were past there active service date, they were not fast moving by any means but they had the experience to know the difference between a part for an Eleven inch Mortar and a part for a Smith &Wesson Revolver. The civilian workers in military installations must at least be Militia or Reserve infantry and some must specialise in artillery and motorised units.
Due to my persistence in asking to view the parts on their stock sheets they resorted to calling on the advice of a lady Captain, who had less than an idea than they did, after several phone calls she did come up with the conclusion that they had a duty to find the parts, as we had a duty to view them before tender. She assured us that the parts were held somewhere but could not tell us where they were. Eventually we were introduced to a young Sargent who did manage to find Thirty Thousand 303 Lee Enfield that the others couldn’t find, (they had been in stock un moved for twenty five years) but he had no idea on parts and fretted when we field stripped Bren and Vickers guns to inspect the barrels as besides us, they had no one on site who had a clue about re-assembling them.
These few examples of abject inefficiency were reiterated though out our inspection in each supply depot we visited.
A few months later I was contacted by Alan Wrigley (ex-Officer in Charge of ASIO) who had been commissioned to produce a white paper on Australian Defence. I submitted my 13 page submission and like all un-complementary submissions, must have fallen through a Black Hole in the bureaucratic ‘Canberra Space’. ‘Yes Minister’ always seems to be the mode of operation in the Australian Defence Department, lots of glossy photo’s of the boys doing their stuff, to hand out to the MPS and Press, a glossy cover up for the massive inadequacies. Billions go into the Defence Propaganda machine instead of purchasing the tools for the troops.
The ‘Canberra Wars’
The movie ‘Pentagon Wars’, is a funny tragic comedy, but the reason it was so funny was because it exposed the truth about modern military purchasing disasters. Disasters which occur in nearly every country in the world on a different scale. Disasters which cost soldiers, sailors and civilian their lives.
The ‘Yes men’ bureaucrats always convince the politician that everything is in their control, that they know. They use a little knowledge of the subject to blind the politicians who have none at all. The men at the sharp end (and there are very few of them with experience these days) are never allowed to talk. The career officer will not allow mistakes to damage that career so ‘cock ups’ continue to be self perpetuated on an ever increasing scale. The ‘Pentagon Wars’ was a comedy but if one watches until the captions at the end you will notice it was all a true story about the disaster of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. We in Australia have had many similar disasters one good example is ‘The Lemon’.
The Lemon The F88 Steyr
While the Sgt-Major bellows at the recruit that "Your weapon was made by the lowest bidder", (when it has a minor maintenance problem and the Sgt -Major wishes to make up for poor design and materials with the concept of cleanliness) may not be strictly true in the instance of the F88 Steyr as production cost to the Australian Defence department began at $1600 per rifle and is now supposed to be at $3200. When a modern AK variant in the same calibre could be obtained for $120.00 USD and a M16 A2 for $900 USD.
Even though the accuracy hit ratio at 300 m has improved, for the new recruits, after the Australian Army went from SAR L1A1 to the Steyr. Due mainly to the lower recoil of the smaller calibre and the addition of a small telescopic scope, it has had many inherent problems in Design and Quality Control :-
# The optic sight often fills with water when rifle is immersed in water obstacles.
# Bayonet breaks and are very front heavy on rifle if needed to shoot at the same time.
# After Bayonet practice the barrels of the rifle were bent, and the bayonet stud damaged so Bayonet could no longer be fitted.
# The Butt Plates fall off even though the retaining pin was still in place.
# Cocking handle easily breaks off when stood on, rifle is then totally useless.
# Poor Eye relief, scope too close to eye, can cause a big black bruise around the eye.
# The Arctic Trigger Guard (for use with thick Arctic gloves) is inappropriate in our climate but would be one of the main causes of un-authorised discharges besides the un-reliable safety catch and the inability of the soldier to visually check that the breech is clear without taking the barrel out.
# Heavy build up of carbon residue on end of gas piston and cleaning causes the thin hard chrome plating to quicky wear off, this exposes the softer metal which when cleaned and corroded continually wears the piston down altering the ability of the rifle to re-cycle and operate due to change in the amount of gas allowed into system.
# The facility for grenade throwing not manufactured or manufactured but not distributed.
# The trigger pull is so heavy it affects accurate shooting.
# Magazines have melted and rotted in Australian sunlight and are not interchangeable with M16 and F89 Minimi machine gun which both can use the same magazine.
# The trigger mechanism is extremely susceptible to dirt and mud. It is not supposed to be dis-assembled by the soldier so it has to be returned to the armoury if its not functioning.
# When on Full automatic fire if rifle does not jam it pulls high and to the right.
# Catch that retains the Barrel malfunctions and sometimes breaks off, barrel sometimes becomes loose and falls out of the rifle.
# When on Full automatic fire if the rifle does not jam, only Three magazines (90) rounds can be fired as the Standing Orders dictate that the rifle has to be left to cool until the barrel can be grasped in the hand, (at least half an hour) this gives the firearm a worse rate of fire then the Martini Henry or Martini Enfield single shot from the Zulu War era, which could fire 6 shots a minute (180 plus in half an hour, continuously).
# F88 loaded weighs exactly the same as the SAR unloaded. In this instance the use of plastic has weakened the rifle, but not really had any positive saving in weight. (you could hardly beat somebodies back door down with it.)
# In the prone position magazine rests on the ground if bumped it can dislodge ammunition in the top of the magazine or push the magazine (if the bolt is in the open position) to a higher position which blocks the bolt from closing causing another jam.
Quantity and Quality, Supply
We hear rumours of shortages of supply and only last week one of our employee’s was giving a lecture at the Yandina/ Nambour, Army Reserve Depot when he noticed a current looking photograph of the Reserves using some 303 Lee Enfield rifles. He asked an officer how current the photograph was and it was confirmed to him that it was only very recently, when he queried to the officer the use of the 303 Lee Enfield Rifles the officer said that due to shortages, that they used three types of rifles, the F88 Steyr, the L1A1 SLRs and the Lee Enfield. In media releases from East Timor we see the prolific weapon is the FN Mini Mi Machine gun and obviously either due to shortages of F88 Steyr or preference by the infantryman.
Our Casualties, Caused by Poor Rifle Design, Not the Enemy
During the Australian Armies 1990 visit to Sudan/Somalia the Un-authorised discharges exceeded 80, one of them resulted in a fatality of a soldier. Un-authorised discharges in Timor have duplicated the Sudan experience and now another Australian soldier has lost his life due to bureaucratic produced disasters. The design of the F88 with its lack of a proper trigger guard, its lack of a fumble proof safety catch and the inability to readily check the operational status of the weapon is one of its greatest failings. If Australian soldiers knew more about their service rifle they would refuse to use it. Unfortunately most of them believe what they are told, others who learn and speak out about its deficiencies even at the officer level are sacked.
We are well behind the Eight Ball already.
It was reported in the April/May edition of the Asia Pacific Defence Reporter page 60 that the Indonesian Army is studying the possibility of manufacturing ergonomically designed firearms of its troops. Studies by Indonesian Armies Weapons Factory at Pindad, using anthropometric analyses and a questionnaire survey of 10,000 soldiers in the regular forces concluded that they would be better served by a new firearm design.
The Standard issue to the regular Indonesian soldiers are the US M16, the Belgium FNC and Pindads own SS-1. The SS-1 is Pindad’s copy of the Belgium FNC they are obviously have an advanced start on Australia in seeking the latest small arm for their soldiers..
