It's beyond me to judge if the F35 is worth the money, I just have to hope our boffins have the smarts to work that out. But, I did receive an E-mail from a mate titled " F35B , not just a new strike fighter, "which is interesting reading.
" The US Navy and Marine Corps believe the F35B's main contribution to sea power may be as a stealthy airborne node within a fleet wide co-operative engagement capability. If the RAN were to have F35B's capable of embarkation in a Canberra class ship, either built [ new build] or modified for purpose the types data integration and networking capabilities would give the fleet a network-centric edge giving a single tactical picture in every ship and aircraft. Likely by 2025 its APG-81 radar will have a wide area synthetic aperture mode allowing it to scan vast areas of ocean; its passive sensors can detect targets at long range without revealing the aircrafts presence and all of its fused data can be transmitted and received via a tight beam, stealthy datalink.
Deploying F35B's as part of a naval task force is much more than embarking an air defence fighter. As part of a digital network-enabled command system it can detect ballistic missile launches against the force, cue missile fire from an air warfare destroyer, track bombardment targets ashore and engage enemy aircraft without revealing its presence and other tasks besides, all of these simultaneously. The question is not ,should Australia have F35B's at sea, but rather could an RAN task force survive without them?"
Good question. I hope some one in Canberra has the answer.
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