Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie is using the words from the defence white paper. We are definitely committed to creating a cutting-edge fifth generation Air Force. We have particularly seen this take shape over the past year, which has been a truly historic period for the introduction of new capabilities. We have seen, in the last 12 months, the arrival of the first two Joint Strike Fighters at the Avalon air show in Victoria earlier this year. We have accepted all 12 of the EA-18G Growler aircraft into services, which gives us a dedicated electronic attack capability for the first time, and our fleet of the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft continue to enter service. In June the sixth of our C-27J Spartan battlefield air lifters arrived and that achieved an initial operating capability in December of last year. With all of that new capability coming online, particularly the fifth generation aircraft, it is a very exciting time and there are great opportunities for trainee pilots in the ADF. I encourage as many as are interested to join. (Time expired).