Yes, we have heard this from you more times than I can count. On this occasion though I'm curious what on Earth it has to do with my own answer which was on an entirely different subject.
oldsig
Actually unless I am greatly mistaken that was the first time I mentioned this particular fact, you response however does demonstrate how little regard you actually have for the contributions' of others when they don't fit your beliefs. What I did was give an example of how the short listed contenders are not necessarily the final, final three and that things can change, especially when circumstances change.
Here's on I was on the periphery of, the replacement submarine project. In 2012/13 the preferred option was a locally developed replacement, 2nd was an evolved Collins, with an evolved current Euro option a very distant, not in the running at all, third. The government changed and all of a sudden the design team was disbanded, most of the overseas experts went home and the defmin was talking about canoes and trying to justify building submarines in Japan. Soon after that theres a back bench revolt, the PM announces there will be a competitive evaluation process, something government and defence had apparently been doing for years, a bloke I've known for over twenty five years gets seconded to Canberra to help create this existing process from scratch and the French design wins in a contracting model that was considered the most risky and least likely only a couple of years earlier.
Short and simple, things change, some times for good reasons, sometimes for silly or self serving ones, but they do change. What you are stating, as if it has been carved into stone tablets on Mount Ararat are just the most recent plans and they may or may not change. For example if AEGIS baseline 9 with ABM and SM-3 gets up who wants to bet that someone, somewhere will start pushing that this means the short list should be revisited and maybe a Flight IIA Burke Restart, should be considered to de-risk the project with a new design to follow later. In fact I can pretty much guarantee its already being discussed behind closed doors, doesn't mean it will happen, but just because something didn't come to be doesn't mean it wasn't considered.
