Somewhat of a staggering comment
"Surely medium long range anti ship strike is the only LIKELY mission the RAAF will ever need"
So we are going to go around shooting other peoples ships but we won't need a modern fighter force in that case? Realllllllyyyyy...
I think it would be more LIKELY if we do need to end up shooting other peoples ships we are going to want the best possible ADF (including fighters!) and we will need every element of it.