Double 00
Meanwhile can someone please explain why the hell a place like Australia bought short legged Naval aircraft - F-18 in all forms - when it, erm, doesn't have a carrier and range is surely a very big issue ?!
Nice to be able to co-operate with any U.S. or maybe French, double-maybe British, flat top around at the time, otherwise I'd like to meet the salesman involved.
As budgets are an unfortunate consideration, and indeed as someone said, quantity as well as quality is important, how about F-15's ? From the outset, and now in some form, old( not too old ) or new, possibly the semi-stealthy new model if not too pricey, involving development costs...
Actually the Australians have been flying Hornets since 1982 as their replacement for the Mirage. They rejected the F-15 since (at that time) it had no air-to-ground capabilities. The planned buy of the F/A-18E (Super Hornet) is the interim replacement for the F-111. From Wiki: The Super Hornet is largely a new aircraft. It is about 20% larger, 7,000 lb (3,200 kg) heavier empty, and 15,000 lb (6,800 kg) heavier at maximum weight than the original Hornet. The Super Hornet carries 33% more internal fuel, increasing mission range by 41% and endurance by 50% over the "Legacy" Hornet.
Australia is pretty tied in with the US Pacific Command, which tends to be Navy led. Also, a Navy aircraft offers an anti-ship missile capability which the Australian’s desire to protect their coastline. Apparently the Super Hornet version that Australia wants to buy offers the possibility of conversion to the EF-18 Growler configuration to provide SEAD support to the (late) arrival of the F-35. A significant number of countries, which do not have carriers, have bought the Hornet. They include in addition to Australia: Finland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain, and Switzerland. It’s not a bad aircraft, not state of the art, but a fair amount of capability both air-to-air and air-to-ground in one package, which makes it attractive to countries that only want to maintain one type of fighter aircraft.