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.
The prospect of continued combat operations in the Middle East is driving Australia’s contemplated order for armed pilotless aircraft, a move that is backed by one of the country’s leading defense analysts.
The F-35’s version 3F software is still lagging for the aircraft’s development, though version 2B, needed for the Marines, has nearly finished testing.
The technology is particularly relevant to prospective operators of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning, because the JSM is designed to fit into the weapons bay of the fighter, preserving its stealthiness.
