Wonderful, Baz.

Re: In order to be able to invade Australia a potential aggressor needs to be able to land significant occupying forces here.

Perhaps you need to explain further.

If an aggressor lands a significant forces ... OK, then where will the landing take place?
On the north coast ? How about the west coast.

Where will the enemy lines of communication extend ? Across the desert ? When they land then what?

So they come down the eastern sea board ... Of course we just let them come and do nothing .... Only shoot when we see the whites of their eyes?

Who has the capability to take Australia by force and are willing to do so? USA, Russia, ah, the UK.

The last time that people tries to take a continent the size of Australia they really came to grief. Adolf Hitler and Napoleon come to mind.

You are a military man so read the Defence White papers on the threats to Australia before telling us how this massively expensive will save us from invasion. These will not be too good in protecting our sea lanes and trade routes, yes?

K. Why waste your time with rational argument? Baz is a crude propagandist.

As a software engineer I find the boasting of the number of lines of code to make the thing run a bit scary.
You've got to think of lines of code or function points would be a better measure as parts that could go wrong. The amount of testing you need to do grows exponentially as the number of function points grows. To the point where trying it and waiting for something to fail becomes to most cost effective option.
While I agree we need a strong air capability we can’t afford to be on the leading edge.
We just need one better then the most likely attackers and maybe the bomb for those that are going to always be bigger and better than us.

. Of course we just let them come and do nothing ..
Kilmouski,
Yep ! I"d say the bulk is already here & it won't be that much longer before the numbers are right.
The Left was instrumental in the taxpayer funded invasion & inevitable take-over by anti west religious interests of this Nation .

Actually it is probably a total waste of money the next generation of of fighter aircraft will not have on board pilots. As per usual we are getting the weapons to fight the last war not the next one.

The first point is simple a human even with the best G suit is not able to withstand anything much over 8 times gravity on the other hand a pilot-less aircraft can be made to withstand 30+Gs this translates to a huge increase in manoeuvrability, in fact so much so that it should be possible to out manoeuvre just about any rocket that is fired at it.

The second point is that the aircraft will be flown be one pilot but he can have as many assistances as he wants to take care of all the weapons and defence systems.

The third point is it will save a heap of weight not having to provide a life support system or space for the pilot which in turn allows the aircraft to be even more manoeuvrable, or to carry more fuel or bombs.

The last point is the cost can be brought down because it will not need to be as sophisticated and nor will airworthiness be so critical. It also means there is no risk of losing expensively and highly trained pilots.

The aircraft I envisage would be launched vertically with disposable rockets. It would be able to land by parachute or on a runway as required. It would be able to out manoeuvre anything fired at it. It would be capable of flying at extreme low altitude if required. It would be built in a range of sizes depending on the role. It would be entirely practical for Australia to build something along these lines right now

The author of this article may have received one of the gee wiz classified briefings on the F-35 that convinced that privileged audience that its a silver bullet solution. We public plebs didn't receive the briefing but we, as taxpayers, will pay for the F-35. The word is Australia is buying only 24 to 30 F-35s, costing $200 million a piece.

Not to cast aspersions - just facts.

1. I understand Flight Lieutenant Baz Bardoe is a RAAF officer.

RAAF officers frequently leave the RAAF to work for Lockheed Martin Australia http://www.lockheedmartin.com.au/ .

Lockheed Martin makes the F-35.

2. Winston Churchill said of the F-35:

Never in the field of human conflict were so many $Billions owed by so many Australians for so few F-35s.

3. For a more sober OLO article on the F-35 see "Don't Buy in Haste" at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7401

Pete