What concerns me is a little matter called "Operational Sovereignty", my understanding is that we lose it with the F35 and I'm not sure we have it with the super F18 either.
Operational sovereignty means the ability to use the aircraft for Australias purposes without the need to obtain permission from the U.S.A. This includes the ability to modify the aircraft and more importantly its software.
We had this ability with the original F18, I don't believe we will have it with the F35, and in addition I believe we wont be doing any maintenance on it either - we sign a contract with Lockheed for that. In other words, if the U.S.A. doesn't like the idea of us using the aircraft, it will just stop working.