[naturalman1975]

Can only find accounts referring to this second hand, but I am pretty sure it was in Cabinet papers from the 1960s declassified in the 1990s, and that's where these articles are drawing their information from.

Australia gets tooled up with cruise

Jakarta tooks years to forgive Australia after the Menzies government "ordered the F-111 in 1963, with the specific instruction that it be capable of reaching Jakarta carrying nuclear weapons".

The China syndrome

In 2000, the previous white paper identified Indonesia as a potential point of concern and as far back as the 1960s the decision was made to buy the RAAF its F-111 bombers because they could carry nuclear weapons and had the range to bomb Jakarta.

In retrospect, that all seems bizarre, to say the least.

[Yo-Yo]

All I was saying, and apparently you do agree, is that Australia didn't keep the F-111 around for 40 years just because it had the potential to nuke Jakarta. It kept it around that long for it's other capabilities, mainly maritime interdiction and long range strike.

It is those other capabilities that neither the F-35 nor the F/A-18F can fully replace, but the F-15E could come close. The F-15E replaced the F-111 in the US strike role for that reason, and South Korea and Singapore purchased the F-15K and -SG respectively for those roles.

I understand the decision not to introduce another airframe into the RAAF inventory, and the long term strategy that the F/A-18Fs will eventually replace your current F/A-18As, and as the F-35s come online.

I thought it would have been better in the long run if you purchased F-15Es to replace the F-111s, and retire F/A-18As as F-35s became available.

With the recent cost increases, you may find you're going to be purchasing more F/A-18Fs and fewer (if any?) F-35s.