Pack of Pain November 12, 2007
Posted by thomo the lost in : Asia Pacific, Australia , trackbackThe Sydney Morning Herald noted yesterday in a piece titled Pack of Pain, that the Australian Defence Force is facing legal action from soldiers with injured backs. It seems that the officially provided backpacks are crap and many soldiers buy their ow, especially when they are being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
For an Australian, that is shameful. If we are sending (rightly or wrongly) young Aussies out into harm’s way then we should make sure they have the best equipment available. It seems the Army spends about A$200 per backpack. Soldiers buying their own are paying around A$500 for one that provides the right support, especially as soldiers can be carrying up to 50 kgs in those packs.
More interesting is the spin from the department. The army has issued a tender for 48,000 more of the backpacks. These are supposed to be delivered over the next four years at a cost of about A$10million.
However, a Defence spokeswoman noted that trials would begin next year on developing new packs. Of course, she did not say how long the trials would take but remember, the Army has just put out a tender for 4 years supply of bad packs.
The spokeswoman also noted that
Defence did not support troops buying their own equipment, she said.
“The integrity and life of the equipment cannot be guaranteed by Defence and this can cause problems if the personnel are undertaking critical activities on operations,” she said.
Yeah, right. What a shame for Australia and one issue that I hope will become part of the current election campaign.
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