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When I was a kid, anyone could fix virtually any problem with any car engine, so long as you had a suitable socket-set and a large enough hammer. That's far from the case today however. Unless you have all the necessary diagnostic tools, replacement computer modules and reference documents then you're limited to things like blacking the tires and refilling the windscreen washer bottle.

Of course the up-side of this technology (especially in cars) is that there's now much less need to dive under the bonnet because engines and other bits are now far more reliable than they used to be.

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In fact, one of the biggest benefits that advancing technology has brought us is a significant increase in the reliability of many every-day items.

When I was at school, one career option was that of an electronics tech -- someone who would come around and fix your TV or to who you could take your transistor radio, cassette player or car stereo.

These days, advances in the reliability of such devices, combined with a significantly lower purchase cost, has meant that there just isn't the same amount of work around for electronics techs.

In recent years, various NZ governments have touted the options of introducing new technology to other aspects of our lives. Things such as smart ID cards, automatic vehicle tolling, speed cameras and a raft of other hi-tech devices have either been proposed or actually rolled out.

Much of this makes good sense of course -- why pay a fist-full of cops to sit on the highway and catch speeding motorists when a mobile or permanent speed camera can do the job just as well while those cops get on with other duties?

It is indeed a great shame however, that our peacenik politicians haven't seen fit to extend this penchant for hi-tech to the ranks of our Air Force.

Once again we've been badly embarrassed by the failure of one of our Hercules transport aircraft after it suffered engine problems while providing tsunami relief to affected countries.

A quick search of the NZ Herald's archives provide a raft of reports that are a sad testament to the reliability of our Air Force's key aircraft.

Almost every time we call on the AF to use these craft one or more of them ends up breaking down or being unavailable because of mechanical problems.

To be fair, given the way the government has gutted the Air Force in favour of the Army, the fact that they have any airworthy planes is a glowing endorsement of the resourcefulness and skill of their maintenance engineers.

Give that the government prides itself on providing peace-keeping and humanitarian aid to other countries by way of the military, isn't it about time that we spent a little of that *huge* surplus on bringing our Air Force into the 21st century?

Surely, if the government has decided that we don't need even a token defensive capability, we ought to be ensuring that our transport planes aren't 30-year-old relics suffering from old-age and rapidly diminishing reliability?

Helen is always quick to take a photo-op with our armed services, how about she actually make sure they're not turned into a laughing stock by a mean, penny-pinching, peacenik attitude.

Even one relatively new transport plane that offered a much greater level of availability and reliability would be a wonderful step forwards -- or is she planning to totally dismantle our Air Force in favour of land-based troops with hang-gliders?

Could Helen Clarke be our Hercules' Delilah? (Okay, so it was Samson and Delilah -- but you get the idea right?).

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