Pyne fires back after shots at ‘lethal’ F-35s

New Defence Minister Christopher Pyne has hit back at criticism that Australia’s new $17bn fighter aircraft are obsolete.

A US Air Force F-35 flying over Estonia.

New Defence Minister Christopher Pyne has hit back at criticism of Australia’s new fighter, the F-35, saying he had 100 per cent confidence in the futuristic aircraft that is the “most lethal” in the world.

The minister was responding to criticism by veteran business journalist Robert Gottliebsen and former Royal Australian Air Force test-flight engineer Peter Goon of the F-35 fighter program, which involves Australia paying about $17 billion for 72 of the Lockheed Martin aircraft.

Mr Goon said he had done simulations that showed new Russian jets obtained by China could overfly and outrun Australia’s joint strike fighters to launch bombing raids on Darwin or RAAF Tindal base in the Northern Territory.

Gottliebsen this week launched an attack on Defence claiming there had been a massive cover-up about the jets, which he said were made obsolete by new Russian and Chinese aircraft that could fly faster and higher.

Mr Pyne strongly denied the claims yesterday.

“Every advice I have received, every briefing, from the chief of the air force to the airmen that fly the F-35A has been unanimous — this platform is the most lethal and inter­operable with other platforms in the same battle space in the world,’’ he said.

Mr Pyne said critics did not have access to all the information available to the government.

“I certainly don’t intend to put that advice below the opinions of those who are not privy to the same level of intelligence-sharing as the chiefs who advise the Australian government,’’ he said.

Mr Goon, who served in the RAAF for 15 years, put forward a diagram showing what he believed would happen if Russian Sukhoi Su-35s jets recently acquired by China were pitted against Australia’s main air assets, including the new F-35 strike fighters in a battle over the Timor Sea.

The scenario has Australia’s F-35s and the F-18 Hornets deployed in a defensive role, and supported by the Wedgetail early-warning aircraft and the refuelling tanker aircraft as part of a force to thwart an attack by the Russian ­Sukhoi Su-35s Flankers.

Mr Goon said the Flankers would “supercruise” in at about Mach 1.8 without using their afterburners and at a height of about 55,000ft (16,700m) well above the F-35s and F-18 Hornets that had to stay at about 30,000-35,000ft (10,670m).

“The F-35s might be able to fire a missile at the Flankers but they (the Flanker pilots) would just burp their afterburners and outrun the missiles, which would be getting slower by the time they climbed up to the Flankers’ altitude,’’ he said.

Mr Goon said the Flankers would then fire their missiles at the Australian planes. “The reality is they can shoot missiles from a high level, meaning they are throwing their spears from the top of the ridge into the valley while ours are trying to shoot up from the valley to the ridge,’’ he said.

Mr Goon said once the Russian jets got past the F-35s, they could take out the refuelling tankers

A Lockheed Martin spokeswoman said the F-35 was a powerful force multiplier providing complete situational awareness to the pilot and across the operating forces — significantly enhancing the capabilities of other airborne and ground-based platforms.

She said advanced and highly integrated sensor and communication systems gave pilots a superior warfighting advantage over any adversary.