Plan: Hearse Ebb

If you are a true F-35A fan for the RAAF, you must be perplexed.

Time and again the faithful have stated we need the F-35A. Yet, money was squandered on:

$3B for the EA-18G Growler effort.
$1B or more for unneeded C-17s
$6B for 24 Super Hornets out to 10 years of capability. Including I-forget-how-many-millions wasted on wiring 12 of those with the potential to be kitted for Growlers which was never used. For the spend-thrift in Defence, there is no limit to how much disrespect they have for the money we generously provide them.

There is probably more than that wasted.

So, with that money: $10B, RAAF could have already had some F-35A squadrons in-place; with a fair amount of legacy F-18s retired.

Given the class curve, if you are a true believer in the F-35A for the RAAF this would not be too bad.

Other aviation communities have 2 different kinds of faulty helicopters (the MRH-90 and ARH-Tiger) and still those programs press on.

Defence is getting the P-8A and there is a ton of things on that which are not sorted.

I would figure that today, we could have already had 2 F-35A squadrons in initial operating capability. They couldn't do much and the maintenance would be a lash up (with ALIS in such a mess) but for the faithful, image is more important than substance.

Today's F-35As could probably fire an AMRAAM and drop a JDAM.  Fear!!!!

All the rest of the entrenched defence bureaucracy spin, would take care of itself.