[Wavytone]

Its just a boondoggle to pour federal $$$ into propping up the techies and contractors that make up DSTO. In the process propping up the south australian economy and hopefully buying a few votes.

Note there is no long term plan, no clear objective defined.

Reminds me of:

a) Promoting the nullarbor desert as suitable for sheep farming to soldier settlers after world war 1. Many died in the drought and out of sheer poverty in the great depression that followed.

b) a car industry in the middle of nowhere, where all the parts had to be shipped across the continent to the car plants, then the results shipped back, for the sake of building employment where it should never have been in the first place. Thankfully the accountants in the companies concerned finally prevailed and put a stop to the insanity despite numerous government boondoggles to prop it up.

c) a submarine base, built on the wrong side of the continent so that every boat has to spend months sailing halfway round the continent.