On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 09:26:01 +0800, "Neil Gerace"
wrote:


"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message
...

It is not so much a matter of not trusting/allowing them access to
technology as it is a matter of it being a spiral development effort. The
first US aircraft will be Block 1, followed by Block 2, then ultimately
Block 3; spiral development gets the aircraft into service earlier, albeit
without it having its ultimate capabilities realized. As more capabilities
are realized, they are incorporated into the production blocks. If it were
a
*trust* issue, why is the *US military* also going to have Block 1 and 2
aircraft serving in our own forces?

Eventually they'll get Block 3, whereas it looks like the RAAF never will.
That's the difference.


Never ever say never!, they might just get it one day, but only if
there's a Block 4+ for the US :-).
The major issue will be Security of Supply, Imagine that Australia and
a 'far eastern country' get involved in a bit of a tiff, and we in
Oz need an urgent modification to our 'JSF Lites' to counter a
threat, AA, SA or whatever, We have to ask the US to provide
intergration/upgrades, we are definitely not getting the source code!,
now what happens if the US does'nt want to harm relations between the
US and a 'far eastern country'.

Or If they say 'well we'd like to give that capability to you, _but_
its a bit sensitive, we will certainly try to get an export licence
real soon - sorry!'.

What happens when were asked to support another military action with
the US with our JSF Lites, should we say 'we stay at home without the
upgrade!!! ', because if we do send a JSF Lite and one is lost to
enemy action, there's going to be some serious questions asked about
how close an ally we are, and what the hell were doing sending in an
inferior aircraft into a war zone.....

Its quite a mine field, once you start going down the 'your an ally,
but not that trustworthy route'


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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