Government Grants First Pass Approval for Joint Strike Fighter

The acquisition of this capability will be Australia ’s largest Defence procurement and will ensure Australia ’s future air superiority.

In December, once final administrative arrangements are in place, Minister for Defence, the Honourable Dr Brendan Nelson plans to sign the JSF Production Sustainment and Follow-on Development (PSFD) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The PSFD MoU will govern the remaining life of the JSF Program for the nine partner countries and will cover expenditure of about US$500 billion.

The MoU will also open up billions of dollars of opportunities to Australia ’s defence industry. To date 20 Australian companies have won an estimated US$90 million worth of work on the project.

In October the JSF Program Executive Officer, United States Air Force Brigadier General Charles Davis visited Canberra to provide a briefing on the status of the project.

In his brief he noted that the first aircraft the project team plans to fly was being prepared for a test flight in the late November to early December 2006 time frame.

‘It is running a little behind the schedule we would like it to. But, I have made sure the company understands that we’re not going to fly the aeroplane to meet a schedule. The goal of flying that aeroplane is to make sure that when it flies it can go up the very next day and fly again, and the next,’ Brigadier General Davis said.

‘We’d much rather make it a viable test pad than try to meet a fly date. JSF has a history of doing things a little bit later than we plan. But, when they happen, they seem to happen very well.

‘This aeroplane was fuelled with no leaks, and I’ve never, in my flight test career, ever seen that happen on the first flight of a new article. From the day we put initial power on the aeroplane to the time we had the engine running and afterburner, it took about eleven days to cover that span,’ he said.

Brigadier General Davis said he honestly believes that the project team understands all the risks that remain on the conventional take off and landing (CTOL) version of the JSF aircraft and have these risks well entrenched in a mitigation plan.

‘I do not see a lot of risk remaining in being able to get the CTOL aeroplane out to meet not only the United States Air Force’s schedule but certainly your Air Force’s schedule,’ he said.

‘Because we will deliver the first of the CTOL aeroplanes to the United States Air Force in early 2010 which is about the same time the Australian Air Force will actually start contracting for its first lot of aeroplanes, to start deliveries out in the 12/13/14 timeframe and beyond,’ Brigadier General Davis said.

However, as a precaution to potential delays that can occur with projects of the JSF’s scope, the Government is looking at cost effective options to ensure that Australia maintains air superiority during the transition period.

This includes taking additional steps to ensure that the F/A-18 Hornet delivers Australia ’s air combat capability edge during the transition to the Joint Strike Fighter, through the Hornet Upgrade project.