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“I believe the technical term for this project is a shemozzle,” says Andrew Davies, a “top defence strategist” in Australia. The country’s A$600 million (US$582M) purchase of anti-submarine torpedoes from Europe took 12 years. Now that they’ve finally been delivered, military planners have found the user manuals are only available in Italian and French. Thus, the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation is advertising for technical translators — who will have to have appropriate security clearances — to make them readable to the people who need to integrate the weapons into Aussie naval vessels. That’s expected to cost at least A$110,000 and add another delay. (RC/ABC) ...“Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!” —Rear Adm. David Farragut, during the U.S. Civil War’s Battle of Mobile Bay (1864).
Original Publication Date: 25 September 2011
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 18.

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