For me the question is which changes will the RAAF want on its Super Hornets?

The Australian minister of defence Steven Smith has recently been talking about 6 Anzacll’s, not 8. This was in discussions with the British minister of defence re the new frigates.

My previous posting is about replacing the Legacy Hornets of the RAAF that require it. I dont believe F18-F,s would be a good replacement, although I do agree that if the RAAF converts 12 of its Super Hornets to Growlers, they would probably need to purchase a further 12 F18-F’s to keep the number of strike aircraft at 24.
For the legacy Hornets, a single seat aircraft would be a more apt replacement. So if the RAAF bought a number of F18-E’s, would they require a seperate supply chain to the F18-F’s, or would they both be able to operate off the same maintenance supplys?

I notice in the article from the Minister for Defence, where the C27J and the C130 are compared, the airlift capacity of the RAAF is listed, with no mention of the Airbus KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport. Doe’snt it ever get used to carry equipment or personnel?

F-35C.

Would a mixed fleet of say three Barracuda nuclear subs, and nine Australian built non-nuclear subs work? The 3 nuclear subs could be introduced to the RAN shortly, not having to wait for the AWD run to finish etc.

I would prefer Australia go Japanese with their submarines. We have a longer trading history with Japan than we do with Spain, but more importantly, Japan are looking to build a submarine closer to Australia’s requirements. After all, both countries are in the same ocean.