LEFT: Former Prime MInister Scott Morrison on holiday in Hawaii while Australia burned; RIGHT: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
At the opening of a new maintenance and repair hub for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (shown above) in New South Wales , Scott “Hawaii” Morrison described the controversial and relatively under-powered F-35 ground and sea level attack fighter acquired by Australia at a massive cost to taxpayers as “incredible” and a means for Australia to “maintain its sovereignty”. He may have to explain his use of this extravagant marketing language to the families of pilots who suffer "flame-out" from the F-35’s single engine while over sea and far from land.
The risk to aircraft from "flame-out", or loss of engine power, is not so great with multi-engine aircraft, and that is one important reason together with greater power that persuaded the United States, Russia, and China to choose twin-engined aircraft for the air superiority or combat role.
In any discussion of Australia’s defence preparedness, the imperial expansion and sophisticated military strength of the Communist China super power is the massive elephant in the room that Australia’s military chiefs appear reluctant to acknowledge. Australia’s political chiefs appear to be equally reluctant to acknowledge this looming threat when choosing very expensive fighter aircraft and submarine replacements that are potential duds.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (shown above) was chosen to replace the Australian F/A-18 Hornet and F/A-18 Super Hornet multi-role fighters at a time when China was not seen as a significant possible military threat to Australia. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is what its name implies, namely, a fighter primarily designed to strike at ground and sea level targets.
The F-35 was initially and primarily designed to fit the requirement of the US Marine Corps for a VTOL* aircraft to replace its ageing Harrier VTOL ground attack aircraft. It was never conceived as being primarily an air-superiority fighter, so it cannot replace the capabilities of Australia’s Hornet fighters which are 4th generation air-superiority fighters. * VTOL = Vertical take-off and landing.
Former RAAF pilot Byron Bailey has made it very clear that the F-35 is a ground attack aircraft and seriously underpowered by comparison with 5th generation air-superiority fighters such as China’s Chengdu J-20 fighter, Russia’s Sukhoi PAK FA 20, and America’s F-22 Raptor. These air superiority fighters all have stealth capability.
The Americans are already recognising the serious limitations of the F-35 and are planning to pair them in air combat with the F-22 Raptor. General Hostage, head of the US Air Force’s Air Combat Command has said: “If I do not keep the F-22 fleet viable, the F-35 fleet frankly will be irrelevant. The F-35 is not built as an air superiority platform. It needs the F-22.”
When so much of Australia’s defence budget has been allocated to purchase of the F-35 strike fighter, it appeared unlikely that Australia's defence chiefs would ever admit its limited capabilities in air combat. So it was refreshing to read in "The Australian" of 12 February 2021 that Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld has claimed that it would be "foolish" to increase Australia's existing order of seventy-two F-35 fighters arguing "(Australia) might be better off waiting for a next-generation capability".
Australian pilots will probably die because of the cowardice of politicians in refusing to acknowledge the limited capabilities of the F-35 in air combat.
The glaring reality is that any threat to Australia is likely to come from a country possessing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them on Australia’s cities by ballistic missiles. Australia has no defence against this deadly threat. In the unlikely event that Cambodia, Brunei, or Monaco declares war on Australia our underpowered F-35s might just manage to defend Australia.