reply to post by thebozeian
Hi,
Thanks for the corrections. I wasn't aware the F-111's were retired 10 years early, as I've been under the impression they were being retired around
the timeframe that has been played out so far.
New F-18's.. do they still make new F-18's? ...Okay.. just did a bit of reading to find that the Super Hornet is a different aircraft that were
initially introduced in 1999 and are currently in service. So thanks for the heads up which brought me to do some more research.
See, now you offer me something to go research again... the contract and how that is being put across by the departments involved. On one of the links
I lost recently was a discussion from the departments involved from Australia and it spoke about us being offered the F-22 Raptor instead of waiting
for the JSF.. and of course our men in the know said "No"... dumb move on their behalf I think... unless they were thinking with their future
Budgets.
I've also been under the impression that we are equal partners in this project with other nations.. which is why I used the word "Major Partner". And
I could swear I read we have placed orders already.. so it looks like I need to do more research to get up to speed.
And I agree the earliest aircraft going into service are bound to have problems.... just seems to be the way things go for us with our military
purchases.
Thanks for the information and corrections, I appreciate them.
Edit to add the links I found for info.. and a quote from Defense News....
In November, Australia became the first of the eight JSF partner nations to order the warplane, announcing a 3.2 billion Australian dollar ($2.9
billion) purchase of 14 F-35As, along with initial training and support infrastructure. These are the first of 72 aircraft the RAAF plans to purchase
under a combined Phase 2A and 2B of the NACC project, code-named Air 6000.
Defense News 2010
edit on 6-11-2010 by Tayesin because: to add a link