PETER LA FRANCHI / WELLINGTON
Defence Capability Plan reveals helicopter carrier details and gives missile go-ahead
Australia will retire its General Dynamics F-111 fighter-bomber fleet from 2010 and is to transfer its long-range strike role to Boeing AF-18A/B fighters and Lockheed Martin AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft equipped with stand-off weapons.
After 2012, the strike role will be taken over by the Lockheed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with a decision on acquisition of 75 aircraft, rather than the previously indicated 100, to be taken in 2006.
Australia will also build two 20,000t helicopter carriers and proceed with the delayed acquisition of Raytheon Standard SM-2 surface-to-air missiles, with options being retained for possible solutions to future maritime air warfare threats.
Initial details of Australia's revised Defence Capability Plan, released on 7 November, also indicate that the Royal Australian Air Force's Project Air 7000 Phase 1 high-altitude endurance unmanned air vehicle programme is likely to acquire only five platforms. The Air 7000 Phase 2 future manned maritime aircraft requirement to replace the AP-3Cs from 2015 is likely to total eight platforms.
The transfer of the RAAF's strike role to AF-18A/B and AP-3C aircraft is baselined against a two-part missile acquisition, with the existing Project Air 5418 Follow On Stand Off Weapon requirement to be restructured. Plans for new targeting pods for the AF/A-18s are also being fast-tracked, with a competition to be launched within the next two months.
The Air 5418 plan was to be considered by Australia's Defence Capability Committee on 14 November. The DCC was expected to endorse a new restricted competition between the Lockheed Martin AGM-158 JASSM stand-off missile and the Taurus Systems KEPD-350 for the AF-18s, and the Boeing SLAM-ER stand-off land attack missile for the AP-3Cs.
The Air 5418 project office was expected to propose that A$50 million ($35 million) be allocated to the programme for the next 12 months to fund study contracts to be awarded to Lockheed Martin, Taurus and Boeing, with A$10 million kept in reserve and A$10 million used for project office costs. Final source selection and acquisition would occur by 2005, with the weapons to enter service from 2007.
The decision to bring forward the F-111 retirement date from 2015 to 2010 follows advice to the Australian government from the RAAF that the aircraft would not be safe to operate by 2015.
Source: Flight International
