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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

> With all the problems noted over the last few years I'm surprised that anyone wants it

What makes you think anyone wants it?

Buyers of things like this don't buy because they want to, they buy because they're told to.

My friend at DMO (Defense Materials Organization) in Australia spent 2 years of his life on a huge team that recommended the Australian Defense Force don't buy any Abrams tanks for a whole bunch of very valid reasons.

Australia bought a bunch of them anyway, in direct contradiction to the organization who's very purpose it is to make these kinds of purchasing decisions.

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Australia's also committed to buying 72 - seventy two! - F35s, as part of the block buy program mentioned in the article. Sure, it arguably helps keep prices down, but the ongoing integration and support costs for foreign buyers pose a lot of challenges.

Yea, the suckers (or 'allies') in Asia and the Middle East that weren't even part of the "program" or development will buy these white elephants and subsidize the cost!

Well, how much of the money they spend on them came in the form of U.S. foreign aid in the first place?

Who are the suckers?

Japan for one. When it comes to national defense why would one let another country dictate the defensive posture? That is suicide.

Atleast Japan is trying to actually have a viable solution:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/01/28/japan-first-steal...

Japan isn't just buying F-35s, they are building them at Nagoya.

The UK kind of has to buy them because a carrier without aircraft looks a bit silly.

We have an aircraft carrier again?

It's actually a milk float

It was Defence Materiel Organisation. "Materiel" being a specific term for military supplies, distinct from "material".

I'm curious, what were the reasons? What was the better alternative? I've read plenty about the shortcomings of the F35, but this is the first I've heard about shortcomings of the Abrams.

They're mind blowingly maintenance intensive. I forget the numbers, and I'm sure google will dig something up, but it was something like each Abrams must have 5-10 support vehicles, and requires a full engine rebuild every x hours (where x was shockingly small - like 100)

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