11th October 2011, 12:16 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2008
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From 'the age' website and a very old article but considering that the cost has blown out enormously a number of times since this article its an even more valid point:
Quote:
The RAAF's next generation of air fighters could be as outclassed as propeller-driven aircraft in the days of jets, the Parliamentary Library has found.
In a recent report into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the library said it was likely the project would become more expensive and that other aircraft would do the same job more cheaply.
And it warned that developments in unmanned aircraft could make the JSF effectively obsolete.
Australia is one of eight countries to have signed up with the United States to develop and buy Lockheed Martin's $US276 billion ($A374.92 billion) F-35 JSF.
Australia is hopeful of buying about 100 of the aircraft at about $100 million each, to replace the ageing F/A-18 and F-111.
But the library, which canvassed the JSF, the alternative F-22 Raptor and also the F-15 (being purchased by South Korea), found Australia's decision may have been a poor one.
It found the cost of the F-22 was likely to come down to that of the JSF, while the JSF is likely to become more expensive.
The F-15 was found to have almost all the same features of the JSF, except some of the aircraft's stealth capabilities.
But even those stealth capabilities were played down, as Australia would only get aircraft which much lower stealth abilities than those flown by the United States Air Force.
And by the time Australia plans to take control of its JSFs, in around 2015, unmanned strike fighters could only be a few years away.
"Like the last of the propeller-driven fighter planes, the JSF's day may pass before the aircraft even soars into the sky in RAAF livery," it said.
The library said there had to be questions over whether the number of JSFs expected to be built would be.
It said America's use of the F-22, and the development of an unmanned fighter, would cancel out the need for some of the planned 2,400 US JSFs.
Already Australia is budgeting around $15.5 billion for the JSF project - a $3.5 billion increase in recent years.
The library said this cost would continue to blow out.
"It is clear that the JSF will most likely become much more costly by the time it is delivered and fully effective," it said.
The report comes as the US and its JSF partners, including Australia, have made an in principle agreement on the project's plans.
Included in a draft pact were statements of intent by the non-US countries to buy a combined total of 710 F-35s, said Kathy Crawford, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon program office involved.
"It's one step closer to finalising partnerships that will last 40 years or more," she said.
An agreement on the draft memorandum of understanding was reached last week in Williamsburg, Virginia, Crawford said. The pact also covers how the aircraft would be maintained and upgraded over their projected 40 year lifespan.
The Pentagon hopes a formal pact will be signed by all the partners in mid-December.
The first of the JSFs are supposed to be delivered to the US in 2009.
Other partner countries, and their expected number of aircraft, include Italy (131), the Netherlands (85), Turkey (100), Norway (48), Denmark (48) and Canada (60).
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