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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Australian fighter jets not ready until 2018


F-111 Pig

Australia's new $16 billion jet fighter fleet will not be operational until 2018 - four to six years later than the Federal Government had promised.

According to a key RAAF adviser, the stealth F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will be far less capable than initially thought.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson's aerospace adviser Denis Hughes has also revealed plans to extend the life of the RAAF's fleet of 30 F-111 strike aircraft.

Those planes, known affectionately as "pigs", were due to retire by 2010, but could be extended to 2020 at a fraction of the cost of a Howard Government plan to buy 24 F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters for $3 billion.

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