SYDNEY - Australia will proceed with a 6 billion Australian dollar ($5.6 billion US) plan to acquire 24 Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets from the U.S. Navy, Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said March 17.
The newly elected Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd considered scrapping the purchase, which was agreed by the previous administration of conservative leader John Howard.
But Fitzgibbon said after a review of Australia's air combat capabilities, the government had concluded the Super Hornet fighters were capable aircraft and the only ones that would be ready by 2010 when they are due to replace the current F-111 fighters.
Fitzgibbon said that while the government would honor the contract, the replacement of the current F-111 fighters was "made in haste but is now irreversible".
"The cost of turning the F-111 back on would be enormous and crews and skills have already moved on," he said.
Fitzgibbon said the Super Hornet was capable of fulfilling Australia's needs.
"We embrace the Super Hornet as a very special aircraft which is more than up to the job," he said.
"It is the only aircraft which can meet the small delivery window created by the former government's poor planning processes and politically driven responses," he said in a statement.
The Royal Australian Air Forces' current fleet of F/A-18 Hornets will remain in service until 2015 when they will be gradually replaced by the new Lockheed F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).
The Howard government last year ordered the 24 extra Super Hornets from the U.S. to ensure there was no air capability gap between the retirement of the F-111s and arrival of the JSF.
"Canceling the Super Hornet would bring significant financial penalties and create understandable tensions between the contract partners," Fitzgibbon said.
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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