Politicians all over the world have been running around with their trousers down for years and Lockheed have chased them with a big pot of Vaseline lets look at that F-104- F-16 -F22- F35 -C130 all of these programs have had deals that one could say was less than straight and without question 😉
As for the RAAF as said with delays that mean F-35 wont be operational until 2025+(my opinion) means that a second order of F-18E/F is a must but as said I don’t see this as bad thing
2014 buy 26 F-18E/F and 10 F-18G cost A$4.5 billion F-18E/F Training moves in house
2015 75 & 77 Squadrons convert to F-18E/F leaving 3 Squadron the sole operator of F-18A/B operating 20 airframes with 30 airframes going into storage to be used to keep 3 Squadron operational up to the arrival of F-35 all remaining F-18A+ airframes to undertake parts recovery in support of 3 Squadron
2016 a new Squadron is made operational on Growler
2024 40 F35’s are brought 2 OCU covert to F-35
2025 1 & 3 Squadrons covert to F-35 F-18A/B is retired and 10 of the 12 pre-wired F-18F’s are refitted to Growler spec
2035 second round procurement of cheaper higher spec F-35 and the RAAF stays highly capable
A lot about F-4’s however when talking F-1 it has to be the MF2000 which has the same spec avionics as M2K-5 and better weapons fit plus a 4% increase in power with longer life cycles and in services in Morocco
Australia is rapidly running in to a sucker’s hole with the on going F-35 delays some big decisions need to be made. At this time the UK(a level 1 partner) recons on having F-35 operational around 2020/22 which makes me think that the RAAF wont see F-35 operational until 2025 as the USAF will take the first 1000 units then Italy and Israel will start to see units arrive followed by Australia- Canada- Norway- and Turkey .
If I was tasked with this problem first I would order 26 F-18E’s and 10 new G’s bring the number of super hornets up to 60 and moving 2 Squadrons on to type and making 1 of F units an OCU second find the 40 lowest FI airframes in the F-18A/B+ fleet and moth ball them and operate 1 Squadron rotating airframes as FI life runs out on used airframes this if managed properly should see the F-18A/B+ through to 2025/30 with no major upgrades needed and as airframe are retired they will go in to parts recovery
With the hoped arrival of F-35 in 2025 10 of the 12 pre-wired F-18F would under go refit to G standard inline with a midlife upgrade of the first 24 F-18F the fist order of F-35A would be 40 airframes allowing F-18A/B to be retired and a front line fast jet force of 100 jets over 5 Squadrons and 2 OCU this also allows a second possible cheaper perches of F35 later post 2035
How about signing up for 50 Gripen E/F with an agreement of 30 Gripen A/B on loan plus maintenance/training package as soon as the deal is signed the first aircrew can go to Sweden for training and fly the A/B’s back
Prince William displaying a water landing in a sea king on a visit to Canada its on youtube
Plus Royal Navy Sea Kings were armed in Afghan
Tanks are useless without air cover in the modern warfare. Within its current state, India will quickly achieve air dominance.
Which doesn’t pose much of a threat to the Indian Navy.
Mostly obsolete types, save for a handful of F-16s.
Nuclear weapon cannot be used in real combat unless one is about to be totally defeated. Remember, the moment Pakistan uses nukes, the Indian nuke drops on Islamabad.
And how is that a containment?
India is surrounded by an open ocean, thus not even the US could contain India. China is a different story, because China’s surrounded by an island chain that is pro-US. Hence the US could contain China at a few select critical passages along with its three allies each of which brings in formidable navies of their own.
The problem is that India would have at least 600 top-class fighter jets consisting of Su-30MKI, Rafale, and PAK-FA. Just 200 of these is enough to put Pakistan on the defensive position, while the rest head to Chinese border.
The US Navy has 9 aircraft carrier and 9 amphibious assault ships 4 guided missile subs 14 ballistic missile subs and 1250 combat aircraft of which 1151 are F-18 A/B/C/D/E/F
The US airforce has some 1400+ combat aircraft
So if the US wanted to contain India and I think it could not that wants to at this time
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