Originally Posted by dat581
The jet had been in Australia for less than a month at the time.
...but had spent some months flying at NAS Lemoore prior to being ferried home and before that had been in storage for a few months at St Louis.
Re LL F-35 ops...without first-hand knowledge, it is far too early to speculate on what the RAAF or anyone else may or may not be thinking re this possibility. Off the top of my head I would suggest that, while LL may have limited application in certain environments, the majority of the F-35's Day 1 and Day 2 work will be performed well above 15,000'.