Sunday, April 27, 2008

Aussies Contemplate F-35

A 28 April 2008 story from The Australian reports a confidential report to Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon is expected to suggest the F-35 multi-role aircraft to replace a mix of F-18 Hornets and the aging F-111 attack bombers after 2010.

China is likely to become the predominant air power in Asia in the next 30 years.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The Chinese have much more to accomplish than most analysts seem prepared to admit in order to 'become the most predominant air power in Asia in the next thirty years.'

Your previous post about the engines of the Chinese attack helicopter illustrate the true state of affairs of Chinese engineering. China obtained engines from a Canadian subsidiary of an American defense firm. A model of engine forty years old.

Chinese engineers failed in attempts to reverse engineer the engine. This doesn't speak very highly of either their expertise or their technology, now does it?

The new missile they've been working on since 1992...Gee. They've maybe produced 16 of them in the past eight years. Boy, we'd best watch out, China's really catching up. It took China a decade to develop the thing. Then another decade to manufacture less than twenty. And analysts are counting this abortion as a 'deployed' weapons system? Forgive me if I'm all underwhelmed.