From Todays The AustralianTrump threat to Australian Joint...

From Todays The Australian
Trump threat to Australian Joint Strike Fighter jobs

Donald Trump has put thousands of Australian jobs and billions in local defence contracts under threat and potentially undermined a key plank of the federal government’s defence industry policy by threatening to end offshore manufacturing of parts for the F-35 fighter jet.Under the Joint Strike Fighter project, Australia has agreed to buy 72 of the aircraft as part of a $17bn program to replace the ageing F/A-18A/B Classic Hornets, which have been in service with the RAAF since 1985.

In an interview with Fox News, President Trump criticised the decision to spread manufacturing of the F-35 across US allies as “crazy”, saying he would change US policy to bring construction of the fighter jets back to US factories.
“As an example, we’re making a fighter jet. It’s a certain fighter jet, I won’t tell you which, but it happens to be the F-35,” he said.“It’s a great jet, and we make parts for this jet all over the world. We make them in Turkey, we make them here, we’re going to make them there. All because President (Barack) Obama and others — I’m not just blaming him — thought it was a wonderful thing.“The problem is, if we have a problem with a country, you can’t make the jet. We get parts from all over the place. It’s so crazy. We should make everything in the United States,” he said.
“We’re doing it because I’m changing all those policies".

”If carried through, the move would throw a key plank of the federal government’s defence industry policy into disarray, potentially threatening thousands of local jobs through the cancellation of billions in manufacturing and support contracts with Australian companies.Led by Lockheed Martin’s Australian arm, the US defence establishment has already handed out about $2bn worth of contacts for the F-35 over the last few years, with Geelong-based Chemring Australia winning a $107.5m contract to make countermeasure flares as recently as early May.According to Lockheed, more than 50 Australian companies are involved in the F-35 supply chain in one form or another, with Defence Minister Linda Reynolds saying in May the program had already created almost 2400 local jobs.

The federal government has said Australia’s partnership in the F-35 program will create more than 5000 jobs by 2023.Last June President Trump kicked Turkey out of the Joint Strike Fighter program after the NATO ally elected to buy a Russian air defence system.The decision came at a substantial cost to the program, with the US government audit office recently estimating it would add an additional $US1.5bn to annual manufacturing costs. But the Trump administration has shown no signs of backing away from its decision.While it is unclear whether the US administration will follow through on the President’s latest threats, they throw a shadow over hopes that Australian manufacturers could benefit from the decision to expel Turkey from the program.

ASX-listed Quickstep Holdings has significant contracts to supply carbon fibre materials to the JSF program, including parts for the vertical tail frame. The company, which has 270 employees at its Sydney facilities, says it supplies more than 30 individual components for the F-35, with content on every aircraft produced.The US Department of Defence declined to comment on President Trump’s comments, referring them to the White House itself.“The department remains fully committed to the F-35 program, and maintaining a competitive edge with its unique, unmatched 5th generation capabilities. We will continue to aggressively reduce F-35 cost, incentivize Industry to meet required performance, and deliver advanced capabilities to our warfighters at the best value to our taxpayers,” said a spokesman.NICK EVANSRESOURCE WRITER


oh oh To me its just DT blowing off steam? A bower shot to other JSF countries perhaps. anyway SP seems to be holding.