Fighters the `next best' from
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au...55E911,00.html


22jun04
AUSTRALIA will not get "top of the range" stealth fighters in the $15
billion deal for the new generation US-built aircraft.

The Australian version of the Joint Strike Fighter will not be
equipped with the best weapons systems and will be missing other
crucial war fighting sensors.

Michael Cosentino, international programs director for Lockheed
Martin's JSF project, yesterday confirmed the RAAF would be sold
so-called Block 2 aircraft and not the Block 3 type provided to the US
Air Force.

Mr Cosentino rejected claims Australia would get a "dumbed down"
version of the JSF when it signs up for the nation's biggest ever
defence contract.

The $15 billion will buy the RAAF 60 fighters which are due to be
delivered in three instalments from 2012 to 2020.

They will replace the RAAF's 24 F-111 strike aircraft and 77 F/A-18
fighters.

Mr Cosentino said the Block 2 version would be a war-ready fighter but
would not be fitted with more sophisticated weapons, software and
other systems available in Block 3 planes.

"Block 2 is a go-to-war, stealthy, survivable, lethal aircraft," he
said.

Mr Cosentino is in Canberra for a major defence industry conference
and to update the Government and RAAF on the project.

He said the aircraft was "about 80 per cent designed and tracking to
all of its performance requirements".

The US Government and Lockheed were acutely aware of the "strategic
gap" between when the F-111s were retired in 2010 and the JSF
delivery.

US Ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer told a Parliamentary Inquiry
yesterday Australia would get as much technology as any country
outside the US could get.

"We have given assurances to Australia that we will give you the
absolute maximum that we can with regard to that technology," he said.

"Having said the airplane will not be exactly the same airplane as the
US . . . it will be a stealth fighter, it will have stealth
capabilities."



Hmmmm, I thought Australia was a close 'friend' of the US.

Cheers


John Cook

Any spelling mistakes/grammatic errors are there purely to annoy. All
opinions are mine, not TAFE's however much they beg me for them.

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