The Australian Defence Force has been accused of wasting billions of dollars after dumping retired fighter jets in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The F/A-18A/B Hornets, which cost up to $90million each, are currently collecting dust on the US Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, which is an American territory.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Malcom Davis said he had ‘no idea’ why the planes had been so unceremoniously dumped.
‘They are in pretty poor condition because they have been stored outside so they are essentially rusting,’ he said.
Suggestions have been made the planes should be given to Ukraine to help fight off the Russian invasion but Dr Davis said they were outdated.
Australia has dumped its retired fleet of F/A-18A/B Hornets on a US airforce base in the remote Pacific island of Guam
The F/A-18 served as Australia’s frontline fighter from the mid 1980s until the early 200s
‘They are very old, they are not the capable in terms of modern air combat in terms of having all the modern systems on board so that’s why we got rid of them and replaced them with the Joint Strike Fighters,’ Dr Davis said.
‘It’s not really what the Ukrainians are asking of us. The Ukrainians are asking for Bushmasters and Hawkei armoured fighting vehicles, that sort of thing. They are not asking for combat aircraft.
‘We got rid of them (the planes) because we replaced them with much more capable aircraft, they are early 80s technology.’
It was reported in 2020 that the retired Hornets had been sold to US entrepreneur Don Kirlin, whose company Air USA was going to contract them as ‘opposition’ planes for the American military to use in training exercises.
The sale, which was for an undisclosed amount, appears not to have been followed through.
Australia decided to buy 75 F/A-18A/B Hornets from the US in 1981 to replace the French-made Mirage jets which had served as the RAAF’s frontline fighters.
The Hornets, upgraded each year, were delivered between 1985 and 1990 with the last F/A-18 being retired from service in 2001 before the fleet to be replaced by the F-35A Lightning II.
In 2010 Australia buried its fleet of F-111 fighter/bombers near Brisbane.
Daily Mail Australia contacted the Australian Defence Force for comment.
Mr Davis said Australia’s defence strategy, as outlined in a major review handed to the Albanese government this past week, ‘is the right step forward’ and it focuses on ‘impactful’ force projection rather than defence of the continent.
He defended the centrepiece of Australia’s recent arms build-up, the $368 billion defence pact with the US and Britain which lead to Australia building its own nuclear-powered attack submarines.
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‘If we want to be secure we’ve got to spend that money,’ he said pointing out the cash would go out over a 30-year period.
US entrepreneur Don Kirlin was reported to have bought the Hornets in 2020 to use as whose as ‘opposition’ planes for the American military to use in training exercises.
Military analyst Dr Malcolm Davis has rejected a suggestion the retired fighters could help defend Ukraine
‘I don’t agree with anyone who says these things are not worth it. I think we’re moving into a period of extreme risk so we have to spend a lot more money on defence.’
Mr Davis ripped into former prime minister Paul Keating, who in an extraordinary Press Club address in March, called AUKUS the ‘worst deal in history’.
Mr Keating argued AUKUS would tie Australia into the US sphere of command and was an enormous expense that would have been better spent on cheaper submarines to defend Australia’s mainland, which China posed little threat to.
‘Keating has zero credibility,’ Dr Davis said.
‘He knows nothing about modern warfare and he demonstrated that in dramatic fashion when he spoke at the Press Club when his entire argument was fatuous in the extreme and completely lacking in factual basis.
‘His notion that the nuclear powered submarines we are getting will tie us to some sort of American war plan which is nonsense. They will be sovereign Australian boats we will make our own decisions as to how we use them.’
Dr Davis rejected claims Australia was acting like the aggressor by buying the new submarines, which are designed as long-range hunters of enemy vessels.
‘If you look what is happening in the region it’s the Chinese who are building up their capability massively without any transparency whatsoever,’ he said.
‘They are unwilling to engage in any discussions about their plans or any sort of arms control, they are massively building up their nuclear weapons capabilities, their naval capabilities so they are the ones who are the aggressors here not us.’
He said the scenario occupying the minds of Australia’s defence planners was being drawn into a war with China over the island of Taiwan, which the mainland ruling Communist party have declared they will unify with by force if necessary.
During a very memorable Press Club address in March former prime minister Paul Keating was scathing about the AUKUS defence pact
He rejected the argument that defending Taiwan was not in Australia’s national interest or was a ‘Chinese’ matter.
Dr Davis said such if China invaded, like the Russian incursion into Ukraine, it would ‘completely undermine the rules-based order, it completely undermines stability in the IndoPacific region’.
‘You end up with a region that is dominated by hegemonic China an authoritarian state that is determined to impose its will on the region and you have to think what that means for us.
‘In 2020 China gave us a list of grievances and demands and if we met their demands we would not be a liberal democratic state today and you would not have a free press.’
