Australia to Buy 58 More F-35 Jets, Scaling Back Initial Plan
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Australia committed to buying a total of 72 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, down from a 2009 plan to purchase about 100 of what has become the Pentagon’s most-expensive weapons system.
The U.S. ally is ordering 58 of the Lockheed Martin Corp.- made aircraft for A$12.4 billion ($11.6 billion), on top of the 14 it pledged to buy in 2009, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today in Canberra. Delays in the production and testing of the F-35s saw Australia announce last year it would purchase 12 more Super Hornets from Boeing Co. to address a shortfall in operational capacity.