{"id":65506,"date":"2021-07-05T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=65506"},"modified":"2021-07-05T10:24:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T00:24:28","slug":"aspis-decades-betting-fretting-and-getting-buying-and-flying-the-f-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/aspis-decades-betting-fretting-and-getting-buying-and-flying-the-f-35\/","title":{"rendered":"ASPI\u2019s decades: Betting, fretting and getting\u2014buying and flying the F-35"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

ASPI celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. This series looks at ASPI\u2019s work since its creation in August 2001.<\/em><\/p>\n

When ASPI began its work, the F-35 joint strike fighter was Australia\u2019s biggest and most expensive program ever. (Now that label has passed back to the submarines.)<\/p>\n

The F-35 arrived 10 years late. (The Attack-class submarine program exhibits similar tardiness.)<\/p>\n

The F-35 is now slowly delivering what Australia wants. Because of the delay<\/a>, Australia spent $6 billion on an \u2018interim\u2019 Super Hornet capability, later topped up with another $3 billion on Growler electronic-warfare aircraft. The \u2018interim\u2019 has become more like a 20-plus-year force structure element<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Australia decided to work with the Pentagon\u2019s F-35 Joint Program Office to develop the F-35s to replace its fleets of F-111s (due to leave service in around 2010) and F\/A-18s (due to retire between 2012 and 2015).<\/p>\n

The bet was \u2018a big deal\u2019 for Australia\u2019s future air combat capability, as Aldo Borgu explained<\/a> in 2004; it was the biggest of calls and a deal with many elements. Joining the JSF project was partly motivated by the chance to develop the nation\u2019s aerospace industry, to have Australian firms supplying individual components as part of a global supply chain.<\/p>\n

The JSF was still a \u2018paper plane\u2019, Borgu wrote, a US program \u2018driven by costs and not by requirements\u2019.<\/p>\n

To confront the key question\u2014\u2018Is the JSF good enough\u2019?\u2014the chief of the Royal Australian Air Force, Air Marshall Angus Houston, published an ASPI paper<\/a> arguing for \u2018a true fifth generation, stealthy, multi-role, single-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft\u2019. In explaining why it was a better bet than other candidates, such as the F\/A-22, he argued that the F-35:<\/p>\n