@JeffMarvel1 its nothing more than a defense contract flushed down the tubes, happens all the time, the media needed a big story and they hyped it to high heaven, Macron is in election year and this was really bad timing on part of the “allies” so he had no other game than to play the very card the media was handing him. It’s a parade charade and let’s pray it doesnt get out of hand.
On the down and dirty side, France was used by Australia as canon fodder to play down the next bidder. Naval Group is very much able to build nuclear submarines, so why didnt the Australians ask for Naval’s nuclear subs when they changed their minds???? The cost overruns Australia is whining about is their doing, these kind of military projects are monitored by several agencies in France and Australia, budget overruns are scrutinized at every step the client (Australia) makes a change. A CHANGE ORDER OR SCOPE CHANGE in a well defined contract is VERY VERY COSTLY, ask any big ticket manufacturer (Boeing, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, etc.) or heavy industry construction contractor (Fluor Corporation, Kiewit, Halliburton, Skanska).
This post is to suggest the news is taking stories with headlines-making potential and blowing them out of proportion. Print ragheads only care about copy sales and circulation. Anyone in the industries I mentioned are laughing at the credibility of the press eroding BECAUSE WE TALK, my colleagues TELL WAR STORIES and this is ONE OF THEM.
Cost overruns on military defense projects are the norm, and when a customer starts asking for custom re-redesign of an already finalized military systems platform they ARE ASKING FOR IT!!!!!!
So why didnt the Australians just re-negotiate the contract and ask Naval Group for nuclear subs???? In most cases it is cheaper to use the same contractor who already started than to start over and especially if they asking for off the shelf nuclear submarines fleet. Naval would even have cut them a special deal just to keep the customer happy and avoid the blowout – which they know would happen on a high profile program such as is. News says the billings were only $1 billion into a $50 billion package, hardly worth all the screaming and shouting and “allies falling out” CHINA IS SMILING AT THE BATMAN THEATRICS GONE TOO STUPID.
But hold on says Ronco Rotisserie sales guy, we get one more angle to this shit show, there is the angle of publicity, Biden, Johnson and Morrison are getting TOUGH ON CRIME, CRIMEA, GRIME, COUGH COUGH COUGH, THEY ARE GETTING TOUGH ON CHINA and they needed all the publicity this cancelled military contract could give them. YES MACRON IS IN ON IT, he is one of the four mothketeers, CLOWNS playing along with this charade cooked up by the press, DC and the White House.