According to the head of the Pentagon’s JSF program office, Lieutenant-General Chris Bogdan, Australia can expect to pay about US$80-85 million for each of its F-35A JSFs in 2019.

Northrop Grumman has technically started production of the MQ-4C Triton, with the US Naval Air Systems Command placing a US$63.7 million order for long lead components, materials and parts.

Production of the highest-tech assemblies yet to be supplied for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) by Australian industry will begin shortly at a new Rockwell Collins facility in Sydney.

The ADF deserves credit for the speedy introduction of tactical UAVs in support of its deployed forces in the MEAO.

In the October 2014 issue of ADM we reported that the Army’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter was facing an uncertain future because it had not been able to achieve the desired rate of effort after a decade in service.

At first glance, the link between hosing cow dung from an automated dairy’s control panel and advancing the art of defence equipment may not be readily apparent. But for Scott Begbie, Managing Director of Adelaide’s APC Technology, agriculture and other industries can sometimes teach defence a thing or two about equipment survival.

During 2014, Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown started shaping the space where Air Force’s Plan Jericho would sit. At speeches in May and August last year he introduced the vision behind the transformational plan to bring the RAAF well and truly into the digital age.

This year is set to be a big one for the RAAF’s KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) which, if everything goes to plan, will finally have an operational boom system.

Operation OKRA is the Australian Defence Force's contribution to the international effort to combat the ISIL terrorist threat in Iraq.

By the end of 2014, BAE Systems’ advanced manufacturing centre at its Edinburgh Parks site in Adelaide had delivered 900 machined titanium components to customers Marand and BAE Systems UK, to be incorporated in to tails for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

When the first RAAF Joint Strike Fighters arrive in Australia in 2018, they will be capable of both air to air and air to ground combat using baseline US weapons.

With the first two RAAF F-35A Joint Strike Fighters now flying training missions in the US, planning is now focussed heavily on sustainment and a recent initiative has seen the establishment of a version of the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) in Australia.

The first of Army’s seven new Boeing CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters will be delivered to the 5th Aviation Regiment in Townsville in April, several months later than originally anticipated, but the six others will be handed over by September.

The past 12 months have seen significant progress in the evolution of the RAAF towards the integrated, interoperable and networked vision of the future.

Air 7000 will see the Commonwealth operate a number of manned and unmanned systems with the P-8As and Triton UAS. The finer details on how the BAMS side of the equation will come together are taking shape.

The Army’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter and Taipan (MRH 90) Multi-Role Helicopter have now both been in service for several years, but both still face challenges, particularly with regard to sustainment.