Australia's Air Force Is Not Even Remotely Ready To Face China In Any Conflict

RAAF F/A-18s and F-35s. Royal Australian Air Force

Forbes: The Australian Air Force Can Send Just Two Fighters Into Battle With China

With China’s armed forces growing bigger and more sophisticated by the year, Western and allied militaries are scrambling to keep up.

The Australian military, for one, has a plan for taking the fight to China. As part of a $400 billion defense-wide plan stretching out to 2030, the Royal Australian Air Force intends to arm its growing fleet of American-made fighters with long-range cruise missiles.

Farther in the future, additional support planes could further bolster the fighters.

But the tyranny of distance—Australia lies more than a thousand miles from any likely battle zone—imposes hard limits on Canberra’s ability to wage aerial warfare against a distant enemy. Every mile an air package must travel in order to reach the fight decreases its endurance in battle and increases its reliance on tankers and early-warning planes.

And those support planes are in short supply.

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WNU Editor:  That is the problem with the F-35A. It's operational range is limited.

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