New Defence Minister Christopher Pyne has been handed the same Joint Strike Fighter/F-35 “song sheet” that was given to former prime minister Tony Abbott four years ago.
Neither Abbott nor Pyne realised the words on their sheet were simply wrong and the misinformation jeopardises Australia’s long term air defence.
Back in April 2014 when announcing a JSF purchase the then prime minister Abbott declared that it was vital that Australia retain air superiority in the Asian region and went on to claim that purchasing the JSF/F-35 would deliver Australia that air superiority.
The remark might have gone unnoticed but earlier in 2014 the commander of American Air Combat Command, General Mike Hostage, declared: “The F-35 is not built as an air superiority platform. It needs the F-22”.
Our prime minister (and I suspect the cabinet) was clearly grossly misled as to what Australia would achieve buying the aircraft.
Fast forward to 2018 and in response to my JSF-F-35 commentary earlier this week, Pyne was briefed by the defence chiefs and then boldly declared that the JSF/F-35 is the “most lethal” aircraft in the world. In my book the words “most lethal” equate with Abbott’s mistake in claiming the JSF delivers “air superiority”.
And the Pyne declaration comes as, according to reliable press reports, the JSF/F-35 developer Lockheed Martin is approaching the US government to incorporate the JSF into the F-22 to match the superior Russian and Chinese aircraft.
While the US, Japan and Canada have worked out the truth about the JSF — it does not deliver air superiority --- we are still using the old song sheet and misleading the nation.
But it gets much worse. Because we will not face the truth, Australia is being led into a deadly trap and we are likely to be slaughtered.
In the national interest I plead with the minister to personally read the June 2018 United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Committees.
In a chilling statement for Australia the top US government investigators say: “Over the past year, the DOD (US department of Defence) has made progress in completing the F-35 development program.
“However, in its rush to cross the finish line, the program has made some decisions that are likely to affect aircraft performance and reliability and maintainability for years to come.”
That’s the summary. In the detail the US government experts reveal that the JSF/F-35 developers plan to go into full production before they have resolved “critical deficiencies”. Any first year engineer will be able to explain that such a decision is very high risk and will almost certainly be motivated by some contractual deadline.
Unless Australia understands the high risks being taken and stops talking nonsense about air superiority or similar claims we will be saddled with paying for an aircraft that is not only unreliable (it may fail under attack) but carries enormous maintenance bills.
The report reveals that some of the US defence arms are so shocked by the enormity of these ongoing costs that they are considering reducing their purchases. For the US bottom line, Australia still thinks it’s buying the “most lethal” aircraft in the world so can be relied on to pay the big sums required to keep the aircraft in the air. Of course, these big payments will underwrite Lockheed profits for decades.
Canada woke up that it was buying an inferior aircraft and saddling itself with enormous costs and pulled out. Japan has woken up that not only are the costs enormous but the JSF/F-35 does not deliver air superiority over Chinese aircraft. It wants the F-22 to be revamped to incorporate some of the JSF features and production restarted. And that’s what Lockheed is suggesting to the US government.
Australia bought the JSF-F-35 against advice partly because we believed that buying into the aircraft development program was an essential part of the ANZUS alliance. The simple truth is that, on the basis of the latest US government information, we look set to buy an unreliable high-cost aircraft that does not deliver what we wanted to achieve. And we do it to maintain the ANZUS alliance.
The ANZUS alliance is a wonderful pact for Australia but I don’t think former US president the late Harry Truman and former external affairs minister the late Sir Percy Spender who together arranged the ANZUS pact ever envisaged it would require Australia to buy an aircraft like the JSF/F-35.
More Coverage
Join the conversation
Investors turn to Asia
Our big banks might have retreated from Asia, but it’s an exciting region for long-term growth.
Read more
Franking grab will hit ASX
Labor’s franking credits policy is the first step in giving some pensioners a sharp clip under the ear, but investors will suffer too.
Read more