Has Australia moved on from the F-35?

recently Australia made a significant and somewhat surprising decision to cancel its order for 28 more f-35s let's take a look at how this decision impacts the military picture in the Pacific what it means for the United States and how the West can maintain its Edge in the region before we delve into the implications of Australia's decision let's take a moment to understand why the F-35 is such a special aircraft a fifth generation multi-role Fighter the F-35 lightning combines Advanced stealth capabilities Superior situational awareness and unmatched lethality its ability to operate in various roles such as air-to-air combat air-to-ground strikes and the often overlooked intelligence gathering makes it a crucial asset in Modern Warfare more than an aircraft the F-35 is an Airborne combat information node coordinating Allied assets like a quarterback in the sky these abilities make the F-35 a unique aircraft but such complexity comes with its share of growing pains more on that later getting back to the order cancellation Australia already operates three F-35 squadrons while this may seem to be sufficient numbers here are some concerns for starters the 28 additional Lightnings were slated to replace the Royal Australian Air Force or rafs sole remaining Squadron of F-18 Super Hornets instead Australia will continue to fly their last batch of f-18s for another decade or so into the mid to late 2030s this raises the question as to how much time can be squeezed out of the remaining Super Hornet airframes and interestingly there is a plan Australia is looking to perform a midlife update on their f-18s and raise them to the block 3 standard block 3 super Hornets are effectively fourth plus generation Fighters which include upgrades such as enhanced Mission computers and sensors and reduced radar cross section or RCS that should improve survivability along with a projected 10 000 hour service life with these upgrades the rwaf super Hornets should be able to serve comfortably into the next decade Additionally the timing of the decision to keep the Super Hornet is interesting as Boeing's production of new F-18 airframes is set to shut down in 2024 we're very much approaching the end of an era one last note about the Super Hornet back in 2007 it was an interim replacement for the long range F-111 Aardvark affectionately known as the pig Australia's decision to keep their super Hornets flying begins to make more sense when you also consider the recent issues the lightning program is undergoing specifically the technology refresh 3 or tr3 upgrades have encountered software problems which have led to delays as a result the Pentagon has stated that it would only accept new f-35s with tr3 once all upgrades are completely ready it's not a stretch to say that these delays also impacted the RAF decision to forego their last batch of lightnings these delays have also impacted the total number of f-35s to be produced this year from a plan 153 down to around 120 Jets furthermore the plan block 4 upgrades will place even greater demands on the F-35 software and engine in the case of the engine additional cooling capacity will be needed to power the advanced electronic systems Pratt Whitney the f-35's engine manufacturer has come up with an engine core upgrade or ECU which is intended as a solution for all existing and yet to be built Lightnings the only issue here is that these ECU modifications will take time to implement and could further delay block 4 upgrades from coming online along with this China's rapid uptake in the production of its j-20 Mighty Dragon stealth Fighters is cause for additional concern there is some debate as to whether the j-20 is truly a fifth generation fighter but in any case it is an advanced aircraft that should be seen as a serious threat especially in numbers j-20 production is projected to be 120 units this year without a doubt China is bolstering its air power and challenging the balance of military power in the Pacific the F-35 still enjoys a global numerical advantage over the j-20 with over 900 examples built and counting but it is concerning that the j-20 will see as many new units built as the F-35 does this year additionally unlike the lightning Fleet which is stationed all over the world j-20s are concentrated in the Western Pacific fortunately the F-35 is not the only aircraft representing the West in the Pacific the U.S Air Force operates f-15s and f-16s in the region as well as 5th generation F-22 Raptors the UK's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force can also bring assets into theater including f-35bs and eurofighter typhoons then there is the quad Alliance which consists of the United States Australia India and Japan which has the potential to serve as a counterbalance to China's growing influence in the region strengthening cooperation and coordination among these nations can help maintain stability and security and speaking of f-35s Japan has over 140 f-35s consisting of about 105 a models and about 40 short takeoff and vertical Landing B models these numbers give Japan the most f-35s of any International customer interestingly India recently selected the solar file over the Super Hornet in their latest fighter competition the rafale is another excellent aircraft that can help maintain the balance of power in the Pacific another promising development lies in the Australian UK and U.S trilateral security pact better known as alcus initially designed to assist Australia in obtaining nuclear-powered submarines The Pact has been expanded for the three nations to work together in the indo-pacific region to develop wider Technologies when it comes to fighter planes this could eventually include the Next Generation air dominance or ngad's sixth generation fighter there are some who think the engad is already flying and it could be in production by the mid-2030s which is when the RAF super Hornets are intended to serve until it's worth pointing out that Australia is very comfortable and happy with their three squadrons of the f-35s so perhaps this decision is a game of hedging beds in order to be in a position to acquire the engad as soon as it is available additionally Australia has been making strides in unmanned aircraft especially in the form of the loyal wingmen program a fighter-sized low-cost treatable drone that could become a progenitor to the U.S Air Force's skyboard program these drones and initiatives could be implemented by the rwaf to serve as a force multiplier which will result in the need for fewer manned Fighters while initially Australia canceling their last batch of f-35s seems alarming when you combined all the aforementioned factors block 3 super Hornets drone aircraft the August collaboration and the engad program it does begin to make more sense the RAF is a key player in the balance of power in the Pacific and together with Allied Nations should ensure that remains the case into the foreseeable future and finally there has been an on-again off-again speculation that Australia could acquire the 6th generation B21 Raider predictions are always interesting and if you'd like to see what mine were before the Raider was revealed to the public then check out this video now you know all right

Channel: PilotPhotog

Views: 529,002

Keywords: aviation, flying, photography, aviator, pilot, fly, airplane, plane, planes, pilotphotog, avgeek, F-35, Raaf, Australia, Super Hornet, NGAD, procurment, squadron, F-18, defense politics asia, defense update, best of aviation, aviation news, military aviation, Block 4, pratt & whitney, technology refresh 3, lockheed martin, AUKUS, defence update, sensor fusion, distributed targeting processor-networked, northrop grumman, near peer, datalink, avionics

Id: IostTF7zKeQ

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023