Quote:
Originally Posted by Targan
The ongoing saga of the F-35 is embarrassing and annoying for the US, but let's be honest, the US wastes huge amounts of money in the defence area year after year. For countries like Australia, it's a real problem. We sunk (for us) lots of money into the F-35's development and we're counting on its delivery to fill a capability hole. We've bought a bunch of Super Hornets as a stop-gap measure because the F-35 has been delayed for so long. Australia's defence budget is a tiny fraction of America's, we really can't afford to cover the ever-rising projected per-unit cost of the F-35, and we can't afford to sit around for a decade waiting for the damn things to become combat-effective.
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Very short sighted of Australia to place all its eggs in one basket over this absolute bogey of an aircraft. However I think America manoeuvred Australia among many others into committing to the F-35 by denying them access to the F-22 which better suited its needs and then shutting down the F-22 production line. As far as I can see the F-35 is not fit for purpose. Its not very fast, its not very agile, it can't accelerate very well and its range and weapons payload is very mediocre for the amount of money pumped into it. Its reliant on its "electronic edge" and stealth but they cant get the software to work properly among many other faults. Have you heard the latest shite about it? It wont be able to fire its guns until 2019 because of software issues and its engine may shut down if it overheats, which is going to scare the pants out of every pilot who his going to fly it due to the fact it is a single engine aircraft. The Israelis who don't really want it in the first place will be putting in their own software and electronics when they get a hold of it as they just don't trust the crap that Lockheed Martin spouts about it.
Australia may have to start looking around at other aircraft if the F-35 keeps falling flat on schedule, as Flanker derivatives and the Chinese clones in the Asia-Pacific region will be quicker and longer ranged. God help the Aussies and the others if the Russians sell their latest AESA radar and air-to-air missiles to the locals. The Eurofighter or a upgraded F-15 might be its best option, although the Eurofighter is a bit short ranged for what Australia needs but its a lot better and more reliable than the F-35. The other so called partners in the F-35 may eventually cause the Pentagon to see sense about this crud of a fighter as they are reliant on exports to break even. The US will stick with it due the amount of money poured into the programme and a great deal of cronyism. Numbers may be cut but not while Obama's in office. Hopefully the F-22 will be reactivated until the F-X and the Next Generation Bomber programme reaches maturity.