Australia's Senate to conduct inquiry of F-35 purchase? Could they be next?

 Thanks to Peter @ Air Power Australia for the link!



via Sydney Morning Herald...

A push to examine the wisdom of Australia's planned $24 billion fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters - ranking as the nation's largest ever defence purchase - is underway in the Senate.
Greens defence spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson on Friday has urged the Senate's standing committee on foreign affairs and trade to inquire into the suitability of the stealth jet for Australia's strategic interests.
The move comes after the election last month of new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a promise to abandon plans to purchase the troubled fighter.

Well we know what Lockheed Martin lobbyist were doing over the Thanksgiving holiday.

They were working overtime to block the effort by the Senate to take a look at the F-35...a real look.

On a sidenote.  No one has fully explained why Japan, S. Korea and Turkey are developing their own stealth fighters.  No one is looking at the plan to keep the Typhoon in service till 2050 (or so).  The F-35 is supposedly only second to the F-22 in air to air combat and in some ways (according to the program office) superior.  If that's true then why the "backup" planning by partners that "know" how good the airplane is?