Australians don't need any defensive aircraft. Who the hell would invade Australia? Fer crissakes, England sent their inmates there hundreds of years ago and now those inbreds have bred like sheep. Genetically speaking, no one wants Australia. 
Put up an airforce of bi-planes, any invading country would be laughing so hard that they'd call off an attack. 
Australia is chock full of mineral wealth of all kinds. IT controls the most important ocean transport routes in the world. But mostly cause its resource rich. Zinc, copper, Gold, silver, tungsten, Nickle, Lead, cobalt, and new oil riches have recently been found offshore. Its no secret the Chinese have always looked south with longing. Australia is also a major food producer.
This is one of the most successful economies in the world.
Plus Australia has defense treaty requirements and has had defense issues in the past with other regional powers. She has the most advanced diesel hunter/killer submarines in the world. They are armed with the latest Yank Adcap torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, and combat management system.
An can someone please answer my question. Who exactly in the RAAF, or Aussie armed forces, respects DR. Kopp? Has he ever actually flown anything but small one engine personal airplanes? My understanding is hes a computer guy, or electrical engineer, on the payroll of a company that would score big should the F-111s be retained. My understanding is hes also persona non Grata in RAAF circles.
Hes nothing more then a "Defense enthusiast" with no meaningful credentials, no access to classified material, and nothing more then an Aces High fighter pilot, "and he even burned that bridge when he misstated RAAF statements".
Rich, I don't "hate" America.
I've already covered the RCS angle. Against a technologically proficient foe the RCS isn't going to make that big a difference. I also think you've overestimated the F35 stealth capacity.
Whatever aircraft we chose it's going to cost us. If we make the wrong choice it's just going to cost us more, much much more.
Yeah, right
Stealth has been a total failure so far. I imagine it will be even more so in an airplane with at least 1/2 the return of a F-117 and more aerodynamic then an F-16. But the truth is none of us know the real RCS of the F-35, unless you have access to classified material.
But hey, don't think I don't feel for you. Putting your trust into such a 3rd rate warplane industrial base like Americas is must be painful. We spend countless Billions more on airplane development then the Russians, have a far superior technological base, and still they club us like baby seals.
Even worse we drag you Aussies under with us by forcing on you the same garbage we'll be protecting our 25 CVs and LHDs with, in fact our entire navy. Oh the shame of it all.
