Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bishop for a very important question about Australia’s air defence. The government’s view is that there should not be any lack of air defence capabilities between the commissioning and bringing into service of the JSF and the phasing out of the F111. In the brief reading of the notes provided on this issue, I note Deputy Chief of Air Force, Air Vice Marshal John Blackburn, told a media briefing on 10 October this year—as reported in the Canberra Times on 11 October—‘We are confident that, with the program as it is currently progressing, we should not need an interim solution’.

The upgrades to the FA18 together with these additional capabilities will deliver greater precision within the strike capability than available through a combined pre-upgrade of the FA18 and the F111 fleet. When the F111 is withdrawn from service, the strike role will transfer to the enhanced FA18 and then ultimately to the JSF. In terms of the costings that Senator Bishop asked about, they are important questions. I have some notes on costs here but I have not read them in thorough enough detail to report them to the Senate. I will be happy to provide further detail subsequently.