Australia may opt for Super Hornets next year

Associated Press ^ | August 17, 2011 | ROD McGUIRK

[sukhoi-30mki]

Australia may opt for Super Hornets next year

ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press

Updated 03:53 a.m., Wednesday, August 17, 2011

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has set a deadline of next year to decide whether it will buy Boeing Co. Super Hornet fighter bombers to maintain the nation's air combat strength or wait for the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to be delivered.

Defense Minister Stephen Smith announced the deadline on Wednesday, telling Parliament that his government will not allow the repeated schedule delays of the Lockheed Martin Corp. JSF program to compromise Australia's air force capabilities.

"I'm not proposing to wait until the last minute, I'm proposing to recommend to the government that we make that decision next year," Smith told Parliament.

"Whilst the government has not committed itself to this, the obvious alternative is the Super Hornet," he said.

Australia is a funding partner in developing the JSF, which the U.S. Defense Department describes as the largest fighter aircraft program in history. Most of the funding comes from the United States, while Canada, Turkey, Britain, Italy, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands are also funding partners.

Lockheed Martin, in conjunction with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, is building 2,400 of the next generation fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines as well as the partner nations. But the cost of the program has jumped from $233 billion to $385 billion. Some estimates suggest that it could top out at $1 trillion over 50 years.

Australia has ordered 14 JSFs and has plans to buy as many as 100 for 16 billion Australian dollars ($17 billion). The first two are

[DesScorp]

The clock is ticking on the Joint Strike Failure.