Fw: Defence Review Submission. You may find it interesting

[leslie james]

----- Original Message ----- From: Ron Owen To: mailto:Undisclosed-Recipient:@po.spiderweb.com.au Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 5:09 PM Subject: Defence Review Submission. You may find it interesting     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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Further Experience In the late eighties Owen Guns began to manufacture many firearm parts in Gympie. Springs, Wood Work, Plastic Parts, (S’S plastic rifle stocks) were the first, then we progressed to machined parts. Testing, assembling, packing the complete firearm before retailing or wholesaling. We imported some parts for S’S rifles and manufactured the balance in Gympie. We completed the Stockman Rifle. It was a military Mosin Nagant action which was redesigned with a re -manufactured bolt and fitted with scope mounts, new barrel, and a one piece plastic stock, made entirely in Gympie. We also manufacture a bolt action 4 shot .410 shotgun with a plastic stock. In 1992 we made the prototype Maegun Rifle ( I named it after my daughter, three generations of Owen’s work in the Gympie firearms industry). Many parts were manufactured in Gympie the balance ordered from China, we received an initial contract order for 30,000 rifles to be exported to one distributer in the USA with a promise of many more future contracts. Before the first container was shipped to the USA. Senator Tate the Attorney-General of time made changes to the Customs Regulations which prevented us from obtaining semi - auto firearm parts from overseas and used his influence with the Defence Department to refuse our export permits so we were restricted to the Australian Market. As semi-auto parts were then prohibited Imports for the AK based design of the Maegun we supplemented it with parts manufactured in Gympie. We ceased production of the Maegun rifle in 1996 with the onset of the National Un in formed Gun laws Debacle which took our home market away from us. As the market for Semi-Auto rifles had been extensive, we had developed a new prototype in semi-auto rifle, 7.62 x 39 calibre, with a radically different design, smaller and using less parts than any of its international competitors. Just as we completed two years development work, the 1996/7 legislation banning semi-auto’s from the Australian Market came into place so we redesigned the invention as a Compact Security/ Military/Police Pistol functioning as a semi auto for civilian and a fully automatic/ version for Police in 9mm Para Calibre. Full Australian Patents were applied for this invention in early 1999. We are licensed for every contingency and type of small arms firearm in existence. At the moment we manufacture parts and do modification/alteration work on new or used firearms which we complete for other distributors besides ourselves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   The ‘Buy Back’ Scrap Syndrome During the Buy Back we invoiced and delivered over $8.9 million of semi-auto firearm accessories and parts (400,000 parts) to the Queensland Police Service, they only paid approx 5% which unfortunately will be the subject of an up and coming Federal Court Case. ‘Military Intelligence’ is a famous contradiction in terms, so to is a government which is supposed to be concerned with the defence of its citizens spending $500,000 in the destruction of its Civilian Small Arms and its Small Arms Industry. Before the Small Arms Factory at Lithgow was privatised, when it was a government institution, the Federal government made a decision to scrap two Pratt & Whitney rifling machines rather than auction them to Firearms Trade, it was stated by the Federal Government, at the time, ‘that the decision was made as they did not want to be seen as encouraging the Firearm Industry’. This was at the same time as they destroyed over 100,000 SLR L1A1 rifles that were our Strategic Reserve. My information up to date lead’s me to believe that those rifles have not been replaced by any others and at this point of time we have no Strategic Reserve of Firearms at all. Those semi-automatic rifles could have raised $100,000,000.00 for the Public Treasury, or if they were sold to the Australian Rifle Clubs, they would have been stored and cared for free of charge, and yet instantly ready for action by trained rifleman, or if we had the time, used by the rifle clubs or older members to train recruits for the large intakes which are necessary when War is liniment. Treason Destroying Key Defence Industries and Resources is Treason, it threatens the lives of every Australian. Martin Bryant was a one time aberration, a countries defence of its civilian population is its most important duty, it has to be prepared every day of the year to carry out that defence.   Small Arms Manufacture in Australia Lithgow Small Arms Factory (which has now been privatised) has historically never conducted any of its own development work. All of its productions have been made under licence from the UK such as the Lee Enfield No 1 Mk III, Bren Gun, Vickers Medium Machine Gun, (the only continuous fire weapon used by the Australian Military, it has been taken out of service but never properly replaced) The UK /Belgium L1A1 SLR. Now the inauspicious Steyr Aug F88 made under licence from Austria. The only development in Australian Small Arms military firearms was by Evelyn Owen, assisted by the Wardell brothers at the Lysaght factory during World War II. When the backs were to the wall with the Japanese attacking Darwin, Broome, Townsville and Sydney Harbour. Australia had an Army training with broom sticks for the second time in 30 years and only equipped with a rifle when they landed in New Guinea or Timor. The Australian "Brass Hats" were refusing supply of the vastly superior Owen Gun hoping for a future supply of inferior Sten Guns which they hoped to modify for Jungle warfare and call it the Austen, in every test against the Owen Gun, the Austen failed and was finally scrapped. The Owen Gun was so well thought of and successful it was ordered by the USA government, and was in service well into the Vietnam era. Due to our parliamentarians total ignorance, and subservience to media hype they have slowly strangled all privately owned Small Arms Manufactures like Eley, Sportco, Fieldman, Super, Jongman and even paid ‘AAA Pty Ltd of Tasmania, $2 million to close down and re locate in Malaysia. Meaningless Defence Budget A few years ago the Australian Yearly Defence Budget was approximately the same in USD terms as the Peoples Republic of China, 8 billion dollars but it bought us only a tiny percentage of China’s equipment in terms of Aircraft, Navy Ships, ICBM’s Tanks, and manpower. This is not only due to low Chinese wages but to the fact that our successive governments have killed off any incentive for Arms development, we do not produce our own defence equipment and China produces nearly all of theirs. Australia Should Be Earning Dollars from Defence Industries not Spending Them The European Union has ended its arms embargo to Indonesia, so deliveries are again commencing with British Hawk fighters, 50 Scorpion Light Tanks, 70 French personal carriers 18 Recon vehicles, Dutch radar system British 105mm Light Artillery guns, Modernising of their Tiger11 jets, 14 new Navel vessels are being ordered which will take their fleet to 120 vessels 70,000 man Navy, plus an additional 10,000 marines (Korps Mariner), and an extra11500 infantry. United Kingdom Defence Export Services Organisation has orders for USD 4.8 Billion dollars worth of arms to Indonesia. TNI chief Admiral Widadeo, said that they (Indonesia) would be looking at China to meet its future defence equipment needs and would attempt to boost its domestic production of arms to decrease its dependence of foreign suppliers. Indonesia Makes its Own Jet Aircraft, We Fly Vintage Our Air force is the lowest ranking in the Asian/Pacific area except for New Zealand and islands like Tonga. Malaysia, Singapore and even Thailand has more modern aircraft than we do. Our F111s are older than the pilots who are reluctant to fly them, we have no factories that can quickly resupply the missiles used in any of our forces, all have to be imported if our communication with the USA is cut by sea or Air we are defenceless. We produce good small arms powder at ADI Mulwala but our small arms ammunitions has all to be imported as the last production was recalled. (Even ammunition to New Zealand was recalled) Our three Collin’s submarines (Rust Rattlers) are the laughing stock of the world, the design engineering staff refused to submerge in them. Our Leopard Tanks are 25 years old and suffering from a lack of parts, maybe we should enter them in a Vintage Tank Rally. We have countries in our vicinity who have 1400 main battle tanks our 48 would be casualties within the first few hours. In World War Two tank battles were fought such as ‘Kursk’ where a 1000 tanks were destroyed in a day. We should either make Tanks ourselves or make and distribute 1000s of recoilless rifles similar to the Wombat or Mobat which can be transported in any Four wheel drive vehicle. We have these huge amounts of four wheel drives within the community these are assets which could be utilised if we had a general militia. Not Much Time Left All of our Asian neighbours are re-arming and prepared, the Philippines have an internal land war, Indonesia has a war on Ambon and many other islands, Burma, Ceylon, Cambodia, Thailand all have insurgent forces in operation. There is constant arguments over the oil in the Spratley Islands. We have immense trouble in our immediate region and yet our defences are in a worse state than at any time since Federation, with our exchange rate at an all time low we are in the worst financial position to pay for re-arming. We have to have a Deterrent, Its Either Produce the H Bomb and have the Best delivery System in Our Area, or Arm the Our Whole Population and Train them as an Effective Militia. We should be re-equipping and manufacturing our own defence equipment and selling to our neighbours using the profit to gain more modern machinery, experience and technology but our sequential governments have been closing down the shop in a big way. Our only chance to survive in the new world armed camp that is expanding around our borders is to Arm our small population, not a pitiful reserve but an all encompassing competitive civilian Militia, not just competing to beat the next town in rifle shooting but in producing better equipment, better machine guns better mortars, better planes, better motor bikes, better tanks, better four wheel drives. Instead of giving millions in the lotto’s give it in cash prizes at the militia competitive exercises, reward the city regiments with the best performing artillery, or the Harvey Bay v Tin Can Bay frigate exercise. I know we only have two in operation at the moment, but with the right incentive every coastal port could build and man at least one. If the prize was made available industry would compete for it. As soon as a government is involved rip offs and corruption thrive. The Militia Fight for Their Families Not a Pay Packet Uniformity is only a team consideration, once you have the local team, let the individual competitive stimulus have the reign in the same way the privateers of England thrashed the Spanish Armada, or the Afghanistani tribesmen wiped out first the British Army and a hundred years later the Russian Army. Locally raised Militia have been historically the most successful fighting team. They fight not for the pay packet but for there own homes and families even if there homes are thousands of miles away the locality binds them together, its to those homes and families that they have to return to, and if they let their mates down they can never go back. Give Local Militia the tools and no one will do a better job. Direct the fervour that these young men put into football into much more exiting items such as machine gun and rocket competitions and we will have an unbeatable defence force. Of course the specialists such as Engineers, Signallers, and Instructors would have to be full time professionals but even medical units, or tank recovery teams can be locally raised and organised. Competition, Win Or Lose, Decide Now! Have a completion for any company who can produce totally in Australia the lowest priced fighter aircraft to the specifications that is needed give one to every flying and gliding club in Australia after preliminary instructions, ask them to maintain it fly it, compete with it in inter club competitions, ask them to improve it, raise the money to buy another, build another better one. Defence technology goes to sleep because the information and the working models are kept only for the exclusive use of a few. We have to generate the same national enthusiasm as that which we have been experiencing in the Sydney Olympics for a cause which is not just pure entertainment but the future and safe keeping of every man woman and child in Australia. It may need as much money spent in promotion as the Olympics, it may need as much spent on incentives, it may need as much spent on installations but at least it would be spent on our Nations destiny, training our defence workers, training soldiers, exciting and educating the imagination of the individuals within the countries storehouse, the general population. Then reap the innovative enthusiasm. If we do not involve the general population in defence, the country will still be asleep when it is lost. For example offer one weeks Lotto prize money or a million dollars for any Aussie who can put 20 bullets through the smallest diameter circle at a 1000 yds from a rifle in .30 calibre, shot from the prone (snipers) position with only a sling for support. That alone would give incentive for hundreds of thousand of shooters, suppliers, gunsmiths and manufactures and give this country a lead in Military sniping that would be the envy of the world. If that million dollars was spent in glossy magazines and marksmanship teaching aids for 6000 soldiers it would go nowhere and do little for any incentive. How much money and human effort is directed every week into motor racing, horse racing and football? The kings of Merry England were wise enough to harness this Militia energy and channel it into archery, so they could direct it at the French at Poitiers, Crecy and Agincourt , it made them the masters of Europe. Give The Militia Real Incentives When the Americans had to take on the most professional, the best equipped fighting force in the world at the time of the American Revolution, the British Army and the Royal Navy, it was the individual Militia units who shot those British regiments to pieces and the individual American privateers that beat the blockades and sank British (ship o the line) Battleships. Its always impossible to pay enough regulars soldiers and if defence is kept small than it cannot support a defence industry of its own. If we wish to defend Australia at all we have to throw it wide open to complete privatisation. If the Indonesian Militia are a problem infiltrating into East Timor, why not pay a bounty of $ 30,000. for each dead or alive, pay only on the production of body and equipment. Kangaroo shooter, who have been forced out of employment by the stupidity of the environmental bureaucrats, could form teams and hunt them out. You wouldn’t even have to pay their fare, the situation solved for a fraction of the cost, plus experienced veterans getting the job done with only their own resources to depend on, could return to Australia and train others warriors. Moralists might shrink at the use of private enterprise, entrepreneurs, but privateers in Elizabeth’s the Firsts Navy through to the Napoleonic Wars took Prizes home and sold them dividing the spoils amongst the crew. This gave incentive for risk taking, and worked very successfully for England. With the neighbours that we have, we need ‘warriors’ not ‘shrinking violets’ . 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.. To Compete with Indonesia Our Manufactures Need To have a chance in contributing to Australia’s defence and competing with overseas manufactures need three areas of co-operation from the Defence Department, 1. Import Licences, to view other overseas manufactures idea’s and developments. (this was one of the greatest inhibitions to the Chinese Small Arms Factories, it held them back for years. I was lucky enough to have fresh memories of machine guns from my Army service days and the latest semi autos to look at prior to the 1996 Un in formed Gun Debacle). It is not a wish to copy the latest Patents, but understanding how other international competitors solve basic functional necessities, to suit their particular model is money in the bank just knowing what they have not done is worth solid gold. To be able to look at what they are trying to achieve is Platinum. Only with Federal Ministerial permission can manufacturers obtain samples. As it is, one off samples, Importation’s are very difficult to find as suppliers will not find it worth the trouble to export individual samples. 2.Manufactures need Federal Licence’s to test and evaluate on a Military ranges as many companies have licences to manufacture but not to carry or use at Rifle Ranges. 3. Contact and communication with relevant defence force personal who have some understanding of the subject and who has information as to what the Defence Department is needing in development. Be Prepared Australians are innovative when the incentive is presented, unfortunately they have been actively discouraged from defence production since the end of World War Two. Unpreparedness cost thousands of lives in World War Two, next time (We all hope thier never is a next time but how can we dis believe history) it could cost all of our lives. Lest we Forget. Yours Ron Owen ‘Laws that forbid the carrying of arms .....disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...... Such Laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants, they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man’ Thomas Jefferson