Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
CANBERRA — The Australian government is in talks with U.S. government officials and Boeing about ordering a further batch of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets because of delays in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The deal could be for up to 24 additional twin-engine fighters. A decision will be made next year, Defense Minister Stephen Smith says. For Lockheed Martin, the move raises the risk that it will lose 48 F-35 orders it was hoping to bank in Australia.
BEIJING — Aiming for first delivery in 2016 of whichever foreign fighter wins its F-X competition, Japan will next month choose three primary local manufacturers for the aircraft. Established suppliers likely to be chosen include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the airframe, IHI for the engine and Mitsubishi Electric for the fighter’s systems. A major challenge confronting the defense ministry is to preserve the country’s fighter industrial base.
The Chinese military is either confident that it can already win a battle in the Taiwan Strait, or it is confident that it can keep winning the budget battles back in Beijing. With the ex-Soviet carrier Varyag now mobile near the northern port of Dalian, China has joined the aircraft carrier club. And in completing the ship, with its limited use in narrow waters, the country has left behind one of the guiding principles of its defense acquisitions—that the first priority after nuclear deterrence is subjugating Taiwan.
