Coldsteel

He's not leaving office until someone sticks an icepick through his brain.

They do actually. Just don't look at the Charlton Rifle blueprints, iz verboten: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=205145581 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4822107 Assuming of course His Majesty's government of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will let you look at websites from a penal colony.

Yep, had the common decency to disappear himself at sea. Best PM ever.

If only he would follow in the footsteps of Australia's best prime minister, Harold Holt, then we could all remember Anthony in a nice way.

Of course it is.* Firearms Act 1996 section 119A 8(a) "Possession of digital blueprints ... any type of digital, or electronic or photographic, reproduction of a technical drawing of the design of an object". It is blue and digital and of an object. You can even get digital blueprints from the National Australian Archives for free, if you wish to break the law in the privacy of you own home. But, as everyone knows Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them. *No. Not really. By letter of the law yes, but they aren't going to prosecute over something that would show how stupidly vague the law is written, so books and photos and so on are safe. For now.

Really? What a bunch of drop kicks.

Witness Me!

Well that's a little disappointing, trying to stuff two 25pdrs into a tank which never had that armament, when it could be made into a pretty decent looking standard AC3 instead. It is going to be an Abomination Unto Nuggan.

If they had this one: it might make a little sense since that's what it had at one point, but on what is effectively all Mk3 parts the side by side 25 pounder feels like it would be a waste, either tidy up and preserve what already exists, or expend the extra effort and finish it to make it look like a Thunderbolt should. Those are the only options worth considering in my opinion. Trying to make it some weird chimera of the E1 test rig would only place it in the Abomination category, like the AAAM's attempt at an AC4-ish Woomera-like thing.

The US really didn't want Australia building its own tanks, there are a number of reasons why but that's for some other time, but the belief was that US tanks could be had faster than local production would supply so the initial replacement for the Australian Cruisers was going to be 310 M4s, probably M4A1s. Except that the available M4s were needed elsewhere so none were allocated or supplied. The earmarked funds expired and I don't think the Australian Army had the first idea about what tanks it really needed as looked at weird mixes of Jumbos, or M26s and M24s, and then Churchills once the jungle trials for the British showed it had some advantages. Eventually 510 were ordered but only 51 were delivered when the war ended and the balance was cancelled, and then purchased Centurions in 1949(?). Not a Sentinel, Thunderbolt. And not really one of those either, it's an AC3 hull and turret that was amongst the 150 odd pieces cast for production but not used. They ended up on Holsworthy range and used as hard targets, recovered by the John Belfield/Melbourne Tank Museum and used to construct a new vehicle. The hull was badly bent so a piece of a Sentinel hull was cut and welded in, he got an AC3 gearbox out of a sawmill I think and must have found an AC3 axle housing somewhere. It has one Cadillac V8 in it, so with some suspension bogies and track and it was able to slowly move under it's own power in '96 and should have been a runner when it was sold in 2006. But it was left out in the weather since then, so it's probably going to need some work.

The 3" howitzers were all British. As far as I am aware, it is a pretty much interchangeable with the 2 pounder in the mounting, although the ammo stowage will need to be changed too. Most came from the UK but a few dozen CS Matildas were sourced from New Zealand. While the 3" HE makes a bigger bang than the 2 pounder, with HE and Canister/case shot the 2 pounder wasn't all the far behind in getting the job done.

I think regular incompetence covers it quite nicely, as it also explains why Norfolk island, another part of Australia this time with actual people on it, gets a much higher tariff rate to make up for the claimed 58% rate charged to the U.S.A. While the US government tells us "The United States–Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) entered into force on January 1, 2005. Under this agreement, as of January 1, 2015, Australia provides duty-free access to all U.S. exports." I do like the idea of little penguin customs and taxation officers though.

At least for Australia that would seem to be particularly pointless, the best I can find real quick suggests rate maybe somewhere between 2-3%? which is already well below the 10% minimum the US is enacting across the board, so there are no actions the Australian government could take which will result in a lower rate. And Australia has a trade deficit with the US, that is to say if all trade were to cease between the two the US would lose more than Australia. So applying the formula apparently used should actually yield a negative tariff rate.

Well I don't know what I should have been expecting, only that it wasn't that. 🤣

Well following it through for tanks they start the Second World War with 4 Vickers Medium and 10 Vickers Light tanks and suddenly realise they need more, there aren't tanks available so domestic production begins but the Army really doesn't like that because it is not under their direct control even though it meets their specification. Overlapping with that imports do arrive, a mix of M3 Light and Mediums, and Matildas, however there are parts supply issues with those to various degrees as they are obsolescent types and no longer in production in their native countries. So domestic production ends in part because foreign tanks can be supplied faster to meet a very urgent need and authorisation is given to buy 310 M4s ... and nothing happens the Army can't decide what to get and it is not even clear that M4s can be made available as there is only so many to go around. That expenditure eventually expires and now they look again and they want to get Jumbos, only they're not being made any more, or wait no T20s or similar, or hold on actually the M26 is just what we need and it's nearly ready, and we should also get T24s with that, you know what the Churchill, the Churchill is just what we need, get 510. Or Churchills and M24s. What do you mean "They've surrendered"? I haven't finished ordering yet. Oooo! "Centurion" that sounds nice. And so they start the Korean War with 51 Churchill tanks and suddenly realise they need more, there aren't tanks available ... The Owen gun goes through something similar where is isn't an Army project and so they intentionally mess with that to slow it down and want the much better British Sten instead, only the Owen is backed by the government and so they end up with a mix of the Owen and Austen. They then stuff around with a few projects and want to see what SMG the British Empire adopt for post war service so they can say "we need this too". The Owen stayed in service till 1966 I believe, and the Army finally got the F1.