Govt withdraws from Global Hawk purchase

Defence has pulled out of plans to buy long-range Global Hawk planes, Defence
Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says.
The minister said buying the unmanned surveillance planes would have put too much
pressure on the air force.
"Introducing such an advanced new aircraft at this time would have caused incredible
workforce pressures on the Australian Defence Force, particularly given the
requirement to transition the Air Force's AP-3C Orion fleet to a new manned
surveillance aircraft in the same time period," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
He promised the government would continue to monitor development of the Global Hawk
and the related Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) project.
"The Australian government has every confidence that the United States Navy BAMS
program will deliver a very capable uninhabited aircraft.
"However, at this stage in the development of this project, it is in Australia's
best interests to not knowingly risk incurring the unmanageable workforce chaos that
would result."