Fed: Labor says F-111s essential to Australia's defence

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Fed: Labor says F-111s essential to Australia's defence

CANBERRA, Aug 5 AAP - Scrapping the F-111 strike bombers before their replacementswere ready would leave a hole in Australia's defence, the federal opposition said today.

The F-111s are reaching the end of their life spans and the government said it waskeeping its options open on whether to retire them as part of a review of the DefenceCapability Plan later this year.

Opposition defence spokesman Chris Evans said Australia's defence would suffer if theF-111s were phased out before the proposed new Joint Strike Fighters were available, in2015.

He said the government had mismanaged the defence budget and was now trying to save costs.

"What we see (is) ... them looking for some cost savings and those cost savings willbe at the cost of the adequate defence of Australia," Senator Evans said.

"Their problem is the new planes don't come on-line until 2015 probably and they've got this gap.

"Well, we say it's not acceptable that the defence of Australia is compromised becauseof the government's failure to plan properly."

Senator Evans said the F-111s provided a long range strike capability that other planes did not.

"It allows us to deal with any threat to Australia offshore and it's long been regardedas a key plank in the defence of Australia," he said.

AAP kmh/sb/ldj/jlw

KEYWORD: F111S LABOR