Powered by MOMENTUM MEDIA
defence connect logo

Powered by MOMENTUMMEDIA

Powered by MOMENTUMMEDIA

Photo essay: The history of Australia’s fifth-generation F-35s

f   arrival
Click to launch gallery

10

Photos

Scroll to read and see more

The F-35 program has been billed as the next generation of both Australia’s defence industry and air combat capability. Take a closer look at the story behind the story that is Australia’s F-35s.

The F-35 program has been billed as the next generation of both Australia’s defence industry and air combat capability. Take a closer look at the story behind the story that is Australia’s F-35s.

For the RAAF, the F-35A's combination of full-spectrum low-observable stealth coatings and materials, advanced radar-dispersing shaping, network-centric sensor and communications suites – combined with a lethal strike capability – means the aircraft will be the ultimate force multiplying, air-combat platform.

Ten nations are currently flying F-35s, including the US, UK, Italy, Norway, Israel and Japan. The first of Australia’s F-35A aircraft are now based on home soil after a period of training and development at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, US, plus an epic Pacific Ocean crossing in December 2018.

More than 340 F-35s are operating today with partner nations, more than 700 pilots and 6,500 maintainers have been trained, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 170,000 cumulative flight hours.

Over the coming years, Australia will purchase 72 of the advanced fifth-generation fighter aircraft as part of the $17 billion AIR 6000 Phase 2A/B program – which is aimed at replacing the ageing F/A-18A/B Classic Hornets that have been in service with the RAAF since 1985.