RAND disputes Joint Strike Fighter assessment
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The Air Force is looking at buying 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) for $16 billion. (www.is.northropgrumman.com: file photo)
United States think tank RAND Corporation has distanced itself from a document critical of the Joint Strike Fighters that the Air Force is considering buying.
The RAND Corporation document described the Joint Strike Fighter as inferior to modern Russian and Chinese fighters in speed, climbing and turning.
But in a subsequent statement the organisation says RAND did not compare the fighting qualities of particular aircraft.
But Liberal MP Dennis Jensen has dismissed that.
He says a secret RAND briefing document for a war-game last month condemned the Joint Strike Fighter as being "double inferior", but he says now RAND is trying to distance itself from that assessment.
Dr Jensen says the Australian public deserves answers and he is demanding to know whether the Joint Strike Fighter performed poorly in the recent war-game exercise.
