Casting Doubt On The F-35 !

Along with most of the western world, Australia is committed to buying the F-35 jet fighter aircraft as the mainstay of the Royal Australian Air Force.  We have placed a firm order for seventy-five of them at a cost of seventeen billion dollars.  That is a major expenditure item in our defence budget.

The F-35 will be built by American aviation giant, Lockheed Martin and the plane's components will be sourced from all over the western world.  That is a growing trend in the aircraft industry and each part has both a quality build and a tolerance requirement that is far above the standard required within the car industry.   Over fifty Australian engineering companies are parts suppliers to Lockheed Martin and they account for 2400 jobs in this country.

President Donald Trump has just made a speech that puts that supply chain in jeopardy.   He contends that sharing the parts supply with America's allies is " crazy ".   In the event that we have a problem with a country making parts, we can't make that plane.    The solution he proposes is to bring all the work back onshore and make the aircraft completely in America.

Of course this is an election year in America and Donald Trump will be a contender for another four year stint in the oval office.   A speech that promises to bring well paid jobs home will obviously go down well with his supporters and he was quick to blame his predecessor,  Barak Obama for agreeing to the spreading of the supply chain.

Aircraft parts need incredibly fine tolerances and alloy mixes.  The Australian firms that make supply standard are equipped to compete in the world premium supply markets and that is to our advantage in gaining export business.  A simple nut and bolt that might cost a dollar in a hardware store can be worth a hundred dollars if manufactured to aircraft standards.  It lifts the manufacturing standard in Australia to compete favourably with the best of the rest of the world.

It is also a mistake to think that each component of the F-35 is made by a single manufacturer.  The supply base is evenly spread to allow for supply interruptions caused by world weather events or similar national distortions.   The design of the F-35 contains input from many of the countries that will be buying the aircraft and this has caused the expertise to manufacture parts to be widely spread.

Australian defence experts have dismissed President's speech because of its election content. This is an aircraft tested and proven by a consortium of countries and it will continue to be improved as the base aircraft gets modifications over the years.  In todays world, aircraft go on having improvements added. as they accrue years of front line service.