Now, if the Army said it wanted more of those ARH's or MRH90's, well that's another thing entirely! Just my completely amateur opinion, but what poorly managed programs they've been.
Outstanding the Navy bought the new "Romeo's" - great to see the Navy with some aerial clout once more (being able to fire Hellfires). I'd love to see at least one LHD converted to accept F-35B's, but being a realist would not put money on this. Still anything could happen in the next 20 years. This would add a great deal more flexibility and firepower to these vessels - not just to drop bombs, but do long range recon & surveillance - a job the F-35C will have in the USN and US Marines with their F-35B's - ranging far out from the fleet, finding targets, taking out the high threat stuff and letting the "bomb truck" Super Hornets take out the rest. The RAAF does seem to be following the doctrine of the USN in this regard.
Fast tracking the Super Hornets direct from USN production numbers plus the C-17 and KC-30 purchases were great decisions in my opinion. Slowing down the F-35 acquisition hopefully hasn't hurt too much (decision by previous government - oh boy how I loved watching "The Killing Season" - don't get me started!
). It's given a bit of breathing space to bed down the Super Hornets and the RAAF will learn so much from the Growlers when they come (RAAF being the only other user of this super valuable piece of kit in the world!). Correct me if I am wrong but both China and India do not have any aircraft in their inventories like the Growler and F-35 and it will be a few years before they do.
The RAAF (Williamtown, Amberley and Tindal) bases themselves need to go through extensive upgrades to accept the F-35's as well. Very exciting times for the RAAF. I know there are some here who are not fans of the F-35 - all good. Personally, I think it's a incredible piece of kit - invaluable in fact. Any air force without the F-35 will be second rate. The Chinese and Russkie 5th gen fighters are still years off from being in service and they will suffer as have their current and previous fighters from not having the complete network that exists with western air forces (enough tankers, decent AEW&Cs, being able to data-link to everything - the whole network thing). Only the Russkie gear has been tested in combat in the past and it's always come off second best. I've no reason to think any future Russian or Chinese developments will prove to be any better. Of course I am not an expert - just the prattle from a interested amateur!
