wildcolonialboy
New Member
I was wondering if anyone on here can shed some light on why the RAAF seems to prefer buying fighter aircraft that are manufactured for the US Navy? (F-4, Hornet, Super Hornet etc)
And in that vein, might it be better for Australia to see if it can hold off until the 2020s and purchase the F/A-XX instead of the JSF? It's certainly a risk, but the JSF seems like an absolute dog of an aircraft, in terms of Australia's specific and unique requirements.
Alternatively, might we buy less air superiority aircraft, and perhaps buy some stealthy, long-range UCAVs, or a squadron of the mooted medium bombers that the US might develop? Anything seems preferable to spending $20 billion on an aircraft that will not be much better than Sukhoi can produce, and is in fact far worse in terms of the specific characteristics that Australia desperately needs in its aircraft (range and payload).
And in that vein, might it be better for Australia to see if it can hold off until the 2020s and purchase the F/A-XX instead of the JSF? It's certainly a risk, but the JSF seems like an absolute dog of an aircraft, in terms of Australia's specific and unique requirements.
Alternatively, might we buy less air superiority aircraft, and perhaps buy some stealthy, long-range UCAVs, or a squadron of the mooted medium bombers that the US might develop? Anything seems preferable to spending $20 billion on an aircraft that will not be much better than Sukhoi can produce, and is in fact far worse in terms of the specific characteristics that Australia desperately needs in its aircraft (range and payload).