Australia Buying 24 Super Hornets As Interim Gap-Fillers

Force expansion for Australia?; Last of the 24 arrives; EA-18 conversions. (Oct 21/11)

Australia’s Super Hornet purchase began life in a storm. “The Australian Debate: Abandon F-35, Buy F-22s?” offers full coverage of the controversies over Australia’s involvement in the F-35 Lightning II program, amid criticisms that the F-35A will (1) be unable to compete with proliferating SU-30 family fighters in the region, (2) lack the range or response time that Australia requires, and (3) be extremely expensive during early production. The accelerated retirement of Australia’s 22 long-range F-111s in 2010 sharpened the timing debate, by creating a serious gap between the F-111’s retirement and the F-35’s likely arrival.

In December 2006, therefore, The Australian reported that Defence Minister Brendan Nelson was discussing an A$ 3 billion (about $2.36 billion) purchase of 24 F/A-18F Block II Super Hornet aircraft to fill the fighter gap. The move came as “a surprise to senior defence officials on Russell Hill”; but became an official purchase as requests and contracts were hurriedly submitted. Australia’s new Labor government’s later decided to keep the Super Hornet purchase, rather than pay cancellation fees. Ministerial statements place the program’s final figure at A$ 6.6 billion, which includes basing, training, and other ancillary costs.

This DID Spotlight article describes the model chosen, links to coverage of the key controversies, and offers a history of contracts and key event’s from the program’s first official DSCA requests to the present day…

• RAAF Super Hornets: Variants and Variances
• RAAF Super Hornets: Controversies
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings

Displaying 260 of 8,218 words (about 21 pages)

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