AM Brown--Showing what he does not know

AVM Brown has once again shown he is out to lunch on aircraft capability.

Brown's statements in the article are not as accurate has he may have hoped them to be.

Hope being the operative word here because it is either that, or, faith that is keeping the Defence spin machine going.

On the F-35:

Additional Super Hornet purchases are unlikely given “increasing confidence” in the F-35 schedule, Brown said.

Really? There isn't anything going on with the troubled F-35 program that indicates a justification of his belief system.

Brown said that while he’s a backer of the F-35, he’s frustrated by delays in arming the plane with an anti-ship weapon, regarded as central to Australian requirements.

Well duh. If that was so, it proves even more that the tripple-H (Howard, Hill and Houston) were way out of their depth when they made the snap decision to select this aircraft, yet, no one was worried about anti-ship missiles back in 2002?

Maybe because even up to 2003, this F-35 slide....showed Harpoon and SLAM-ER. Both capable in that mission.



The red "X" marks show what has happened since then.

By 2006, those weapons, as well as HARM disappeared. Drop tanks and CBU-105 followed.

As for Brown's P-8 comments? More faith. The aircraft has to get over significant development issues before anyone can state that it is magically more capable than an up-rated P-3.