The Politics of Defence Acquisition

Australian governments like to boast that their processes for acquiring military equipment are rational and objective and reflect a perpetual striving for the best value for taxpayers' dollars. Military acquisition decisions are claimed to be prudent trade-offs between requirements and affordability, and based on hard-headed assessments of the nation's strategic environment. At the highest policy level this is doubtless the aspiration of every Australian national government. Their primary obligation, after all, is the optimally affordable and sustainable defence of the realm.