Its said to be the most expensive fighter plane in History, but its just been grounded ( yesterday a decison to allow them to fly again,) after a massive engine failure in one plane.
Little Australia is buying another 58 (in addition to another 14 already ordered) of the F-35s at a cost of $Aust 12.4 billion dollars, and with an estimated cost of around $12 billion for maintenance programs during its life time.
But its not without opposition -
Government backbencher Dennis Jensen has condemned the Prime Minister’s $12.4 billion plan to buy 58 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets as a “great national scandal” and “worse than a disgrace”.
In an extraordinary broadside in Parliament on Monday night, Dr Jensen warned that Australia’s national security was being corrupted by an “industrial-military complex” interested in promoting the global arms trade.
But Dr Jensen argued the F-35 was an inferior aircraft to those being developed by “potential threat nations”.
He said the F-35’s US manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, had misled countries seeking to buy the jets over their cost, capability and readiness. He cited a RAND Corporation assessment of the F-35 as a fighter that “can’t turn, can’t run, can’t climb”.
“The simple fact is, Lockheed Martin and the military-industrial complex may be selling the US, Australia, and allies a pup, but nations that may not be friendly to us are not buying the pitch.”
“It is time to end the madness,” Dr Jensen told Parliament. “It is time to scrap the JSF.”