AUSTRALIA TO ORDER FIRST BATCH OF JOINT STRIKE FIGHTERS

Australia is to buy an initial batch of 14 conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) at an estimated cost of AUD3.2 billion (US$2.94 billion), reports Defence IQ.

A second batch of JSFs and all necessary support and enabling capabilities, sufficient to establish three operational squadrons and a training squadron, will be considered in 2012 when much firmer cost estimates are available.

The government’s Defence White Paper published in May committed to acquire three operational squadrons of JSFs comprising not less than 72 aircraft. Purchase of a fourth operational squadron, bringing the total number of JSFs in service with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to around 100, will be considered at a later date.

This will be considered in conjunction with a decision on the withdrawal date of 24 F/A-18/F Super Hornets, the first of which will enter service in late 2010 to provide an interim capability between the retirement of the RAAF’s General Dynamics F-111 strike aircraft at the end of 2010 and the arrival of the JSFs.

The first two F-35As are scheduled for delivery to the RAAF, in the US, in 2014, for test and evaluation. The other 12 will not arrive in Australia until 2017. Initial operating capability (IOC) for the first operational squadron is planned in 2018, coinciding with the date on which the last of the RAAF’s 71 F/A-18A/B Hornet fighters is scheduled to be withdrawn from service. Full operating capability (FOC) for the three JSF operational squadrons is scheduled for 2021.

Up to now, 25 Australian companies have won work worth approximately US$200 million in the development and early production phase of the JSF programme.