Procurement: Australia Runs Out of Time

Archives

February14, 2007: Australia, which was planning on replacing its existing force of F-111 bombers with F-35s, has done the math and realized it will have to buy an interim aircraft. The worn out, 1960s era F-111s, will have to be retired by 2010. The F-35s will not arrive until 2018. Meanwhile, Indonesia is buying Russian Su-30 fighters. In response, Australia wants to buy 24 American F-18F fighters, for about $100 million each (including spare parts, training and such). Australia already operates 72 of the older, and smaller, F-18B. While the two versions of the F-18 have a lot in common (about 25 percent commonality in parts), the F-18F is basically a new, and larger, design that is based on the original F-18. The F-18F deliveries could begin by 2010, and provide Australia with a high performance fighter-bomber that could cope with the Su-30. .

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close