Minding the gap - the Joint Strike Fighter and Australia's air capability

There is another aircraft available, the F/A-22 Raptor. It costs more than the JSF on current indications although that price gap appears to be closing. But this aircraft is a proven performer and its strike capability is being enhanced.

The worry is that the Howard Government and a goodly proportion of the defence establishment refuse to look seriously at the Raptor, and keep staring intently, perhaps wishfully, at the JSF. There is still no plan B to maintain our air superiority until delivery of the JSF.

Also there is simply no way the JSF will be introduced for service in Australia in 2012 - final testing is programmed to continue to 2013. Some pundits are betting this country will not receive its allocation of JSFs until 2020!

So with the F-111s to be rolled out of their hangars for the last time in 2010, Australia will face a big capability gap, the duration of which no one can be sure.

One response from the government has been to announce a decision to acquire new long range missiles for our other front line fighter, the F/A-18 Hornet.

The usefulness of that acquisition though is dependent on what is called the Hornet Upgrade Program - itself a project fraught with unknowns, delays and substantial cost.

The Hornet too will eventually be phased out as and when the JSF starts flying.

Australia’s regional standing and influence has a direct relationship to our air combat capability.

One commentator has argued that the deployment of F-111 bombers and F/A-18 fighters to northern Australia was a well understood “implied threat” of great relevance to the success of the Australian-led United Nations intervention in East Timor.

It is not just the author saying the JSF project is risky.

The JSF program represents the most expensive purchase ever made by Australia. It will cost the average Australian family as much as $3,200. The project is literally at the cutting edge of technology and inevitably faces enormous risks.

Experience shows that solving problems with such a project inevitably takes considerably more time than is originally planned. It is irresponsible for the government not to acknowledge and plan for that delay.

Labor is concerned that the government's stubborn refusal to acknowledge these realities could also be a very expensive decision both economically and strategically.