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.
Japan’s defense ministry sees a sixth-generation manned fighter with counter-stealth capability for the 2030s, while South Korea is trying to form a consortium of developing countries to field an affordable fighter in the 2020s, positioning it between the Lockheed Martin F-16 and F-35.
BEIJING — Indonesia intends to acquire 180 Sukhoi Flankers and also to buy Lockheed Martin F-16s, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro says, setting out plans for a massive expansion of the Southeast Asian country’s air combat force. If Indonesia is serious about buying 180 Flankers, then Canberra will almost certainly fund the Royal Australian Air Force’s plan for 100 Lockheed Martin F-35s, says Andrew Davies, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Until now, there was a significant chance that Australia would buy fewer F-35s.
The early experience of China Southern Airlines in facing competition from fast rail suggests that high-speed trains will inflict heavier damage on Chinese carriers than normally seen in other countries. Although the state of air/rail competition will become clearer as more Chinese fast lines open, China Southern’s current condition in the first big battle with fast trains looks serious: the carrier—China’s largest—has lost half of its business on an 840-km. (520-mi.) route in head-to-head competition with trains.
