What a joke, the supposed Stealthy JSF only available to Yankees
themselves. The exported ones will be compromised on the stealth
features.
Not so stealthy: the $15b fighters
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/not-so-stealthy-the-15b-fighters/2006/03/13/1142098404532.html
By Craig Skehan and Tom Allard
March 14, 2006
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
THE ability of Australia's new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to evade
detection and enemy attack has been substantially downgraded by the
US Defence Department.
And a Liberal MP and former senior defence analyst, Dennis Jensen,
warns that the fighters - at $15 billion the most expensive defence
purchase in Australia's history - will be unable to maintain air
combat dominance.
"Do we really want our pilots to be caught in a knife fight in a
telephone booth with an aircraft that, aerodynamically, is
incapable of mixing it with the threat?" he said in a submission to
a parliamentary inquiry.
A crucial aspect of the fighter's "stealth capability" - radio
frequency signatures - has been downgraded from "very low
observable" to "low observable", according to the US Defence
Department website.
Peter Goon, a former RAAF flight test engineer, said that would
mean the difference between it appearing as a "marble and a beach
ball" on enemy radar. The problem with the fighter, Dr Jensen says,
is that it can be relatively easily detected from the rear.
A Federal Government source conceded yesterday that the stealth
capability definitions had been changed, but maintained that the
"design requirements" for the fighter to "avoid detection" had
not.
Signs that the stealth capability had been lowered first emerged
last year, when key performance indicators on the US Defence
Department Joint Strike Fighter
website changed. The manufacturer of the aircraft, Lockheed Martin,
insisted repeatedly to the Herald that the reported shift was an
error. Australia's Defence Department also maintained there had
been no change.
But those assurances have proven false. When the Herald contacted
the US Defence Department Joint Strike Fighter program office in
Washington, a spokeswoman said the latest table on its website was
correct. "There is no reason to pull it from there," she
said.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman said yesterday: "We will have to defer
to our clients, the US Government, if that is their
decision."
The downgrading in the stealth capability is only one issue that
concerns Dr Jensen, who has a doctorate in applied physics and used
to work at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.
He said the Joint Strike Fighter could not match the Russian-built
Sukhoi strike jets operated by air forces around the region in
important respects.
It falls well short of the F-111 jet it is replacing in its
long-range strike ability and would require air-to-air refuelling
that would leave it and support aircraft vulnerable to enemy
missiles and aircraft, he said.
He also said the fighter would almost certainly be more expensive
than the Defence Department admits.
"[The Joint Strike] is essentially a second tier bomb truck. It
lacks the necessary aerodynamics to defeat the [Sukhoi] Flankers,
never mind future aircraft that may proliferate," he told the
parliamentary inquiry into Australia's regional air
superiority.
The Sukhoi family of Russian aircraft are, or will be, operated by
most Asian air forces, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia and
India.
It is understood Dr Jensen's concerns are shared by another Liberal
MP, David Fawcett. Before he entered politics at the last election,
Mr Fawcett was the commander of the Defence Force's flight test and
evaluation centre.
Dr Jensen and Mr Fawcett raised their concerns with the Minister
for Defence, Brendan Nelson, last month. Dr Jensen told the Herald
yesterday he agonised before breaking with the discipline of the
Howard Government to lodge his submission, but the issue was too
important.
It falls well short of the F-111 jet it is replacing in its
long-range strike ability and would require air-to-air refuelling
that would leave it and support aircraft vulnerable to enemy
missiles and aircraft, he said.
He also said the fighter would almost certainly be more expensive
than the Defence Department admits.
"[The Joint Strike] is essentially a second tier bomb truck. It
lacks the necessary aerodynamics to defeat the [Sukhoi] Flankers,
never mind future aircraft that may proliferate," he told the
parliamentary inquiry into Australia's regional air
superiority.
The Sukhoi family of Russian aircraft are, or will be, operated by
most Asian air forces, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia and
India.
It is understood Dr Jensen's concerns are shared by another Liberal
MP, David Fawcett. Before he entered politics at the last election,
Mr Fawcett was the commander of the Defence Force's flight test and
evaluation centre.
Dr Jensen and Mr Fawcett raised their concerns with the Minister
for Defence, Brendan Nelson, last month. Dr Jensen told the Herald
yesterday he agonised before breaking with the discipline of the
Howard Government to lodge his submission, but the issue was too
important
Like a beach ball on the radar
the
former defence minister Robert Hill with a mock-up of the
fighter.
Photo: Jason South
