Raaf Jsf Questions And Answers

It’s is not every day that the Australian government commits to buy a new fighter, so November 25’s announcement by Defence Minister John Faulkner that the acquisition of an initial 14 F-35 JSFs for the RAAF was hugely significant.

It was a momentous day, perhaps somewhat muted by the fact that it was eight years in the making. The previous Howard government formally committed Australia to the JSF path in October 2002 when it signed up to become an SDD partner in the program, at a cost of US$150m. Since that time, while there has been much public debate, there has been little doubt that the JSF would be the long term replacement for the RAAF’s fighter force.