The Royal Australian Air Force has declared its multi-billion-dollar fleet of Joint Strike Fighters is ready for deployment, two years after the first F-35As were delivered from the United States.Defence says the controversial stealth fighters have reached "initial operating capability"Defence Minister Linda Reynolds welcomed the news of the fighters' readiness for deployment
So far, Australia has accepted 30 of the Lockheed Martin designed aircraft but will eventually acquire 72 Joint Strike Fighters from the US at a cost of $17 billion.
To where 🤔
There must be some shitty arsed country in the Middle East we can send them to, I would hate to see them sit around gathering dust.
Yet homelessness...
Are they any good during bushfires or do they just pour more pollution into the air?
How are our submarines going?
And just in the nick of time too. I believe a LNP senator is declaring a shooting war on China
Deployment for what? They can't even dump water they're useless! Why did we buy them? Is it too late to send them back and buy like fifty water bombers, some big batteries and maybe another wave pool for Melton?
Between these and the subs... we're being hoodwinked...🤦
I wouldn’t be retiring the F-18’s for a loooonng time if these buckets of snot are supposed to be our best air defence. The US were meant to retire their A-10’s and surprise, surprise they still lean of them.
Good grief don’t tell everyone
Who are they useful against?
Can anyone describe a credible threat that warrants this expenditure?
Are u sure?
Look what we got ourselves into, made China our enemy, then we have to spend more money to buy weapon? To serve the arms dealer or Australian people?
Cue the 'progressive' fantasists who wish Australia had no armed forces.
Bought by people living in the past. Been reading too many Biggles books.
pewpewpew
Oh yeh... where's the enemy?
Probably could have a pretty nice water bomber fleet for that money, but now we just have expensive toys that we are only allowed to play with when America asks us. Sweet
Deployment for what...? Australia Day fly overs... LOL
Just buy some mig's they actually work.
Good. About time
Let’s see them then or is it all bullshit?
And who is invading Australia? Last I heard Australian forces are in the MiddleEast and South Asia killing children for blooding rituals
Which country has been super quiet to have caused this aggression.
These the ones that can't fly in the rain
These are the ones that kill the pilots, right?
$15billion For a non existent enemy Meanwhile the real threat to our security the ClimateEmergency is ignored XRebellionAus
Good we may need them soon. Fuk the CCP!!!
It's that time again, folks..
Bugger me, I feel so much safer now...
we've had 30 of them for two years and they've only just been declared fit to fly? Aren't we lucky the biggest airborne threat is a tiny little virus and not some foreign power. I guess in another 2 years they'll be combat ready?
Some!
Fingers crossed they never have to go up against any SU-57s.
$17B for 70 fighter jets to attack/protect us from our once biggest trading partner but yet again the LNP rejects a Royal Commission recommendation to purchase a standing fleet of firefighting aircraft.
Obviously we won't be going to war with the Middle East... They're all here!
Let’s flatten the CCP
All of them or just the few the yanks will let us have?
Deployment against who? Deployed to where? And to what costs and upkeep? Yet couldn’t buy a plane to fight fires FMD 🤔
Politicians love wasting our money on war toys. Especially when they are flawed. Like our obsolete submarines that we are building.
For the pilot's sake, I hope they are never needed.
absolutely pathetic the mindset of our politicians who believe war machines are still in assessity in this day & age when our forests are what we get attacked by every year and yet how many firefighting bombers do we own ScottMorrisonMP WakeUpAustralia
What a tragic joke and waste of our 💰
If only the F35 Joint Striker Fighter was as good as Lockheed Martin's PR people but it's NOT, still has heaps of bugs needing to be fixed.
Hope we got a good warranty program with them....
Both of them?
Have they got motors in them or do they just throw them with a flick of the wrist? For $20m each at least they have ejector seats, great spend morisscum
'Controversial' because the F35 was supposed to be stealth and IT IS NOT STEALTH and therefore legally does not meet the sales agreement. F35 costs a fortune to keep in the air and is also redundant given long range missiles are cheaper and more effective.
F35 JSF Flawed 35 Just Stops Flying.!
Excellent. I want that currently free-for-all Indo-Pacific locked up tighter than a chastity belt.
Didn’t we sign up for these just after the Wright brothers landed?
$17 billion? That could have easily paid for safety CCTV in all of our schools / classrooms for child safety!
Deployment to where? I’m sure they’ll still spontaneously combust on the tarmac at Tindal. Absolute waste of money
So do you trust Morrison to make the decision to or not to take Australia to WAR when America America asks use to join them in their next Vietnam Afghanistan Iraq war!?
Great we can now send them to bomb people who live in caves defending our country 💪 🇦🇺
Colossal waste of our money. This is not something to be celebrated
Death machines! Why do we need these? Morrison’s talks with China taken a turn for the worse? Again...
Unfortunately because of some evil countries this type of equipment is necessary. Hopefully it will not be needed. 👍
Bull
Nice. Don't fill'em with water to spray a fire in the bush; fill'em with bombs and go pay a visit to the South China Sea.
The biggest waste of taxpayer’s money in the history of Australia. The LNP just can’t manage the economy or our national defence.
Anybody want to swap these evil contraptions for water bombing aircraft?
This will be excellent news when we ... start a land war in Asia?
BLM more! Tge ethnic Western community of Aussies do like wasting money on American trash.
more money wasted on crap
is that the same plane that crashed at Amberley ?
Let's hope they survive being hit by lighting mid air.
Without the software they're nonsense 🚩 auspol